190 kHz "Continental" profiles over 300 meters!

In a recent project offshore Venezuela, a 190 kHz profiler was deployed at 310 m and was able to profile all the way to the surface. Because of the surface sidelobe contamination (standard for all current profilers), some information close to the surface is lost.  Still, our analyses shows that the data in this case was valid all the way to 290 m.  In the attached plot (click to expand), the north-south component of velocity is seen to be quite strong in a 100-m deep surface layer.  This episodic event lasted for almost 10 days and the peak velocity 20 m below the surface was about 1.5 m/s.  Not a nice place to be if you want to run a marine operation!

As the acoustic frequency is reduced, the profiling range you can expect becomes an increasingly strong function of the acoustic backscattering conditions.  Nortek has data sets from the Continental all around the world.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in seeing what the range is likely to be at your deployment site.