Enhancing the Accuracy of Current Profiles from Surface Buoy-Mounted Systems

The present work focuses on improving motion compensation in current profile data from surface buoys by integration of an Attitude and Heading Reference Sensor (AHRS) to a state-of-the-art Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), thus expanding its use into applications where fine spatial and temporal resolutions are desired. Presently, the applicability of surface buoy-mounted ADCPs is generally limited to those applications where spatial and temporal averaging are acceptable methods to address motion concerns. However, the increasing demand from both the research and operational communities for ever finer resolution in space and time is rendering averaging as an unacceptable method for these type of deployments. But recent technological advances in miniature motion sensors (improved accuracy and resolution, and reduction in physical size, power consumption, and cost) promises to address some of the earlier concerns with surface buoy-mounted ADCPs by enabling realtime bin mapping at the individual ping level. Additionally, these advances allow for more precise validation of surface buoy-mounted ADCP data against static-mounted reference systems.