Currents and turbulence by acoustic methods

Introduction

Acoustic Doppler current meters (Velocimeters & Profilers) are used to measure currents in the ocean; the original idea as its name stands is to use the Doppler shift to calculate velocity. The Doppler shift is the observed change of sound pitch as result from relative motion. An example of Doppler effect is the sound made by a vehicle approaches, i.e. a car has a higher pitch as it approaches and lower as it goes away. This change in pitch is proportional to how fast the vehicle is moving (this the same technique used by speed cameras and speed guns used by police). So if we can measure how much the pitch changes we can measure how fast the vehicle goes.

The speed of sound is:

[math]C=F\times\lambda[/math]

The Doppler shift is the difference between the frequency when there is no movement and the difference when either the target or the source or both are moving and is:

[math]F_D = F{C \over V}[/math]

where F the sound frequency, λ is the sound wave length , FD is the Doppler Shift, and V is the is the relative velocity between source and receiver.

In the case of all the acoustic Doppler profilers and current meters (but not velocimeters) the transducer works as both a transmitter and a receiver, so that the equation changes to:

[math]F_D = 2F{C \over V}[/math]

So if we know the original frequency and velocity of sound we can measure the frequency change and infer the along sound (beam) velocity. Because we can only measure the along beam velocity instruments have 3 or 4 transducers, so that the 3 velocity components can be measured. The problem of this technique is that each along beam velocity is going to be measuring a different part of the water so we have to assume that the velocity movement is the same within that area.

All comercial Doppler profilers and current meters (not the velocimeters) are capable to use this technique (Narrow Band). This are the most popular instruments available:Teledyne RD InstrumentsSonTekNortekAanderaa