The ACE (ADCP Calibration within EMSO) project recently kicked off at Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM) – Department of Metrology and Oceanographic Chemistry (https://www.shom.fr/en) – in Brest, France.

The project, funded by the 2nd Call of the MINKE Trans National Access program (https://minke.eu/), provides members of the EMSO Working Group on ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) with access to a world class metrological facility in order to enhance their understanding of ADCP operation and calibration, ensuring the highest standards of quality for water currents data collection.

The working group’s main goal is to develop a comprehensive guide on ADCP operation and maintenance within EMSO, guaranteeing optimal water currents measurements across all EMSO Regional Facilities, located in key sites across Europe.

The ACE project, hosted by Marc Le Menn and his team at SHOM and led by Marine Institute’s scientific and technical officer Conall O’Malley, consists in two access stages, both aimed at proving the methodologies to the EMSO team members to be adopted in the future by all the EMSO Regional Facilities.

The first stage was completed with a tailored workshop concerning the testing and calibration of the ADCP which is usually mounted on the EGIM (EMSO Generic Instrument Module), a Teledyne Workhorse Monitor 300 kHz. The EGIM serves as a standardized platform for collecting a set of EOVs (Essential Ocean Variables), including water currents velocity and direction, ensuring data quality and consistency. During these two days of in-person access period, these were the activities performed by the EMSO ADCP Working Group:

  • Meeting to provide technical explanations about the calibration techniques used at Shom
  • Test of the acoustic transducers of the ADCP and interpretation of any faults found.
  • Calibration of compass and tilt sensors on the Shom’s platform with explanations on the alignment techniques employed to make the measurements.

The second part of the access project, slated for autumn, will focus on post-deployment methodologies regarding three Nortek Signature ADCP units which will be recovered from long term deployments at the Norwegian Sea and North East Atlantic Ocean.

If you are interested in learning more about the EMSO’s ADCP Working Group activities, reach out at adcp.elsg@emso-eu.org.

 

Photo 1: Beatrice Tomasi (NORCE), Céline Laus (CNRS), Marc Le Menn (SHOM), Laura Ursella (OGS) and Alexandre Léon (SHOM) with the Teledyne Workhorse 300 kHz ADCP that is usually mounted on the EGIM.

Photo 2: Céline, Laura and Beatrice, members of the EMSO ADCP Working Group, with Lotfi Radjouh from SHOM, behind the ADCP on the compass calibration platform.

 

References:

Le Menn M, Lefevre D, Schroeder K and Borghini M (2023) Study of the origin and correction of compass measurement errors in Doppler current meters. Front. Mar. Sci. 10:1254581. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1254581

Lantéri N et al. (2022) The EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM): Standardized and Interoperable Instrumentation for Ocean Observation. Front. Mar. Sci. 9:801033. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.801033