Dynamics and Transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in Drake Passage
Last Sunrise Big Waves Day Big Waves #4 Last View Land

Shipboard ADCP


The Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) has two shipboard ADCPs: an Ocean Surveyor 38 kHz phased array (OS38) and an RD Instruments 150 kHz narrowband ADCP (NB150). The OS38 can reach to 1200 m in good weather in its deep-profiling mode. In bad weather, low scattering conditions, or some speed/heading/sea state conditions that entrain bubbles under the transducer, the range is less. The NB150 profiles at higher resolution to as deep as 300 m. Data acquisition for both sonars and the requisite ancillary navigation streams occurs via the UHDAS software, written by Eric Firing and Jules Hummon, University of Hawaii. Data streams logged by UHDAS include roughly one-second gyro heading, GPS heading, pcode position, speed of sound, and single-ping ADCP data. Our Linux computer processes five-minute averaged data on a daily basis, creating a regularly updated, preprocessed and edited dataset. Once a day, it emails us a report with system information, data quality parameters, and a sample of recent data. A vector plot is generated at University of Hawaii/Scripps Institution of Oceanography upon receipt of the email from the NBP. Throughout the day, the on-board Linux system updates figures on a shipboard ADCP website . This website is accessible to anyone on the ship's network, and contains links to recently generated figures, the data used to create them, and adcp logging system documentation. Access to the data is also provided through shared disks for Microsoft or Unux machines on the ship's network.