Advances in estimating suspended-sediment concentration from multiple-frequency, downlooking acoustic Doppler current profilers: Missouri River focus

The use of sidelooking acoustic Doppler velocity meters (ADVMs) to estimate fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) by the U.S. Geological Survey has become more operational in recent years; however, direct transfer of these techniques to downlooking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) currently is not feasible. The use of ADCPs to estimate SSC has been investigated by other researchers, but the requirements and limitations of an operational method that could be successfully applied at many locations are not well defined. In order to evaluate the efficacy of using ADCPs of multiple frequencies to estimate SSC, a dataset was collected on the Missouri River at St. Charles, Missouri, in July 2016. The Missouri River dataset is being compared to similar datasets to determine: 1) what factors influence successful use of downlooking ADCPs to estimate SSC, 2) what are the minimum datasets required to develop SSC calibrations, and 3) what modifications are needed to existing methods, instruments, and software tools.