An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measures the speed and direction of currents in the water column. Events are organised by Rives & Eaux du Sud-Ouest and held regularly across France, to validate the performance of ADCPs. These events have funded researchers to spend years analysing the data and informing new software and uncertainty tools from the results.
Tom Burton and Jasmine Hughes from the FDRI field team attended the most recent ADCP Intercomparison event at Canal de la Neste on 3 and 4 June 2025. Nearly 40 teams from across Europe gathered here, conducting transects across the canal to evaluate instrument performance and uncertainty. The exercise aims to identify measurement variability across different ADCPs and flag any outliers. In addition to the ADCPs, smaller flow measurement devices such as NivuFlow Sticks were also tested under the same conditions to compare their accuracy and reliability. The collected data will support the development of best practices and improved confidence in flow measurements.
