Design and Applications of a Vertical Beam in Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers

This paper provides an overview of the design parameters and performance considerations of a vertical profiling beam in an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) instrument. Typically ADCP instruments employ an array of beams that are used in concert to determine three-dimensional velocity estimates at various ranges from the instrument. The vertical profiling beam is an additional beam, supplementary to this array, which is dedicated solely to the measurement of the vertical component of the velocity. This separate beam offers enhanced performance versus the typical ADCP beam array. Also, the vertical beam must be configured in a different manner from the typical ADCP array, and has different performance considerations. These trade-offs are explored and sample data is presented.