Development of a Real Time Measurement System for Charleston Harbour

The National Ocean Service of NOAA has developed and deployed a real-time current measuring system for verification of the accuracy of the NOAA tidal current table for Charleston Harbor. An RD Instruments acoustic Doppler current profiler on the bottom of Charleston Harbor is hard wired to a Coastal Climate weather station. The weather station transmits both the weather data and the current profiler data to a shore station for telephone interrogation from Rookville, Maryland. Although there have been several engineering evaluations of acoustic Doppler current measuring systems, this is the first application of the technology to NOS operational programs. The paper will discuss the development, integration and performance of the system as well as techniques used to assure the quality of data.