A preliminary study on suspended sediment concentration measurements using an ADCP mounted on a moving vessel

A DR300 Broad Band ADCP mounted on a vessel moving at a speed of 2-3 m/s was used to measure the profile of suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) at the entrance to Jiaozhou Bay, Shandong Peninsula, where the water is characterized by low SSCs. The echo intensity data produced by the ADCP were regressed against the SSCs derived using the filtration method. The results show that the calibrated relationship can be used to calculate the SSC, with a relative error of 30%. Therefore, it is feasible to measure the SSC (even if the concentration is low) using the ADCP mounted on a moving vessel. Compared with OBS, ABS and other instruments for SSC measurements, the ADCP represents a potentially powerful tool to retrieve SSC data in continental shelf waters.