Application and evaluation of layering shear method in LADCP data processing

Abstract

The current velocity observation of LADCP (Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) has the advantages of a large vertical range of observation and high operability compared with traditional current measurement methods, and is being widely used in the field of ocean observation. Shear and inverse methods are now commonly used by the international marine community to process LADCP data and calculate ocean current profiles. The two methods have their advantages and shortcomings. The shear method calculates the value of current shear more accurately, while the accuracy in an absolute value of the current is lower. The inverse method calculates the absolute value of the current velocity more accurately, but the current shear is less accurate. Based on the shear method, this paper proposes a layering shear method to calculate the current velocity profile by “layering averaging”, and proposes corresponding current calculation methods according to the different types of problems in several field observation data from the western Pacific, forming an independent LADCP data processing system. The comparison results have shown that the layering shear method can achieve the same effect as the inverse method in the calculation of the absolute value of current velocity, while retaining the advantages of the shear method in the calculation of a value of the current shear.