Acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV) in small estuary: Field experience and signal post-processing

Estuarine mixing and dispersion are unsteady turbulent processes. The present understanding of estuary turbulence remains limited because of limited suitable measurement techniques and a lack of long-duration high-frequency studies of turbulent properties. Herein turbulence data were recorded in a small estuary at high-frequency using acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV). The data sets were analysed, and the results demonstrated that acoustic Doppler velocimetry data cannot be used without suitable post-processing in unsteady estuary flows. Even classical “despiking” techniques are not simply applicable. A new ADV data post-processing technique is developed herein for turbulence analysis of estuarine flows, and it is tested for several field studies.