River Sonde Update: Friday, June 18

Below are general time series and radial plots over the last 24 hours.  Positive along-shore velocities reflect water moving south towards the Hudson Estuary; positive cross-shore velocities reflect water traveling across towards NYC:

Even though we are pleased with the radial profile, we are skeptical about the along-shore and cross-shore measurements taken by the River Sonde.  We were hoping for more clarity in our data (less standard deviation), but knowing how rapidly the physical properties of the Hudson change, the River Sonde might be giving accurate measures.  According to the River Sonde manuel, a typical time series plot looks like:

The above plot is over five days, so we manipulated parameters on our own time series plot to (hopefully) look more like the above.  Over 48 hours, the average along-shore and cross-shore velocities look as such:

Time series over 48 hours

Along-shore average velocities over the last 48 hours

Cross-Shore average surface velocities over the last 48 hours

There are similarities between our measurements and ideal measurements, but there is still ambiguity in the data.

For more comparison, we are including the NYHOPS river model from the last 12 hours, and a prediction for the next 48 hours:

Assuming that the NYHOPS model are showing magnitudes of the velocity measurements, the River Sonde and NYHOPS model are comparable, and there are few discrepancies between them.  Thus, we feel more confident in the River Sonde and its accuracy.

-The Radar Team

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• Quality Control of Bistatic Signals - June 7th, 2012
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• Fisher Island - Ideal Pattern Results - February 2nd, 2012
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