Estuarine Physics

Hach, OTT RLS measurements of water column depth at 15 minute intervals in the lower Plum Island Sound off the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club pier, Ipswich, MA, year 2013

Abstract: 

Measurements of water column depth at 15 minute intervals in Plum Island Sound at the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club, for year 2013. OTT radar level sensor (RLS) installed September 20, 2011 out of the water under the concrete pad on the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club pier, Ipswich, MA. RLS was mounted so that continuous year round measurements can be conducted without the concern of ice flows damaging the sensor.

Core Areas: 

Data set ID: 

236

Keywords: 

Short name: 

MON-SO-IBYCRLS2013

Purpose: 

 

Data sources: 

MON-SO-IBYCRLS2013_csv
MON-SO-IBYCRLS2013_xls

Methods: 

RLS water level install,IBYC, 9/20/11 Hap Garritt, Sam Kelsey(MBL) Nichole Halsey, RonanO’Maitu (Hach)  

Used Growler boat at high tide to attach 2 x 6 pressure treated wood underneath pier platform between pilings. Wood will be used to attach the RLS. Wood attached with concrete adhesive and concrete screws. RLS attached to wood with screws and leveled with shingle shims. RLS cable attached to 2x4 wood which was secured along concrete. Cable attached to eye screws using cable ties.  

Measured distances
Pier deck to sediment bottom, deck near logger down to bottom by floating dock directly downstream of logger/deck railing = 22.45 ft or 6.84 meters

RLS height above pier deck = 33 inches or 0.838 meters  

IBYC NAVD88 benchmark/pier deck by datalogger = 2.78 meters, as determined by Trimble high precision GPS.
2010 2.773
2009 2.811
2008 2.779
2007 2.780  

Calculated distances
RLS to sediment bottom = 6.84 + .838 = 7.68 meters
RLS relative to NAVD88 = 3.618 meters

The OTT RLS sensor technology is based on impulse radar. Two antennas are enclosed in a compact housing and transmit pulses toward the water surface, through a Teflon face plate. The transmitting antenna transmits short radar pulses in the 24 GHz ISM band. The receiving antenna receives the pulses reflected from the water surface to determine the distance between the face plate of the radar sensor and the water surface. The time delay from transmission to receipt is proportional to the distance between sensor and water surface. Approximately 16 individual measurements are conducted per second and averaged after 20 seconds to minimize wave influences.

There are sporadic instances of no data (NAN, documented in Comments field of the data) due primarily to low battery voltage over several days causing the datalogger to malfunction.

Maintenance: 

Data collection complete

Version 01: April 17, 2013, data and metadata updated to comply with importation to Drupal and LTER PASTA. Research location name and description updated.Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007.xlsm 3/14/13 12:02 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0

Version 02: April 30, 2013, data update, Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007.xlsm 3/14/13 12:02 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0

Version 03: February 10, 2014, data and metadata updated to comply with importation to Drupal and LTER PASTA. Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007_Sep2013.xlsm 9/30/13 02:57 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0

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