Fig. 10. Schematic view of bottom mounted ADCP configuration used to measure current velocity in a series of vertical bins through the water column.

Fitzgerald-etal-CEJ-03
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Broadband Doppler phase processing is equivalent mathematically to the Doppler

shift of frequency. Broadband ADCP technology has proven to be an accurate

method that enables ADCPs to take advantage of the full signal bandwidth avail-

able for measuring velocity. The result of a 100 times increase in acoustic frequency

bandwidth is velocity measurements with 10 times better accuracy than with nar-

rowband ADCP. The accuracy of the current velocity measurements is typically a

few centimeters/second.

Figure 10 schematically shows the configuration of a bottom mounted ADCP

with respect to the water column. Current information is obtained in depth cells

that are regularly spread in a grid covering the volume that is measured with the

Fig. 10. Schematic view of bottom mounted ADCP configuration used to measure current velocity

in a series of vertical bins through the water column.