[Acoustics] ADCP velocity data processing and countour plots

[Arthur R. Schmidt]

Jonathan:
several years ago I developed some software that would read the binary data 
files produced by the ADCP (this was pre-Winriver--I was using the files 
produced by RDI's program "Transect").  This software would allow me to 
enter multiple measurement transects, develop coordinates (X,Y,Z) for each 
velocity measurement, determine the depth-averaged velocity for a given 
depth layer, use a LOWESS fit to all the nearby measurements to estimate 
the average velocity a selected locations or spacings.  The output was 
formatted to provide easy input to Golden Software's Surfer package.  It 
has been at least 6 years since I've touched this and I have not idea how 
much the binary file formats have changed during this period, and how much 
the output produced by WinRiver is superior to the old ASCII files that 
could be produced.  However, for the amount of times I had to do this 
conversion and the file formats available at the time, the time spent 
programming was well repaid by time savings in data processing.  I'll be 
glad to discuss the approach I took to this conversion if you would like.

Sincerely,
Art Schmidt

At 02:59 PM 12/1/2004, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I am using velocity data from a broadband ADCP to quantify flow fields and 
>velocity distributions in a river. I am looking for resources that will 
>enable me to more easily produce contour plots of equal velocity lines. 
>Transferring data from WinRiver and WinADCP still requires a lot of data 
>manipulation before producing XYZ formatted data needed for contour 
>plotting. And doing this for many transects can be labor intensive. Is 
>anyone on the list also doing this type of work and willing to provide 
>some insight on their methods?
>
>Thanks,
>Jonathon Mann, P.E.
>Hydraulic Engineer
>NOAA Fisheries
>Santa Rosa, CA
>
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>Acoustics at simon.er.usgs.gov
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***********************************************************************************
Arthur R. Schmidt, P.E.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign           voice:   (217) 333-4934
2535a HydroSystems Lab, MC-250                       fax:   (217) 333-0687
205 N.  Matthews Ave                                 email: aschmidt at uiuc.edu
Urbana, IL 61801            http://cee.uiuc.edu/people/aschmidt/index.htm