Velocity errors in acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements due to platform attitude variations and their effect on volume transport estimates

• Main Authors: Alderson, S., Cunningham, S.
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Antarctic; Drake Passage; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1834/17087; https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1999)016<0096:VEIADC>2.0.CO;2

Abstract Attitude (pitch, roll, and heading) variations of the platform on which acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) are mounted will affect the measurements of water velocity using ADCPs. The major correction required to the velocity vector is for heading. Here the authors concentrate on the magnitude of errors due to pitch and roll biases. Data used in this study were obtained using a 150-kHz RD Instruments ADCP fitted to the RRS James Clark Ross. In late November 1994 a hydrographic section was made across Drake Passage in the Southern Ocean along the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Special Repeat 1 section. The annual occupation of this line is a major contribution by the United Kingdom to the WOCE. A key element of the program is to determine the volume flux of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current as it flows through Drake Passage. One method of obtaining the total volume flux is by referencing relative geostrophic velocity profiles to the absolute ADCP velocity profiles, thereby obtain. Published