The Centre For Water Research

Instruments
 

Lake Diagnostic System (LDS)

The LDS provides very accurate measurements for water column temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll-a and above water meteorology. Data is transmitted to a shore station via GSM or Satellite telephone link and from there is routed to a server for display online in real-time. A key feature of the LDS is the fast response and high-resolution thermistor chain making it useful for inferring properties of the turbulent field.

Lake Diagnostic Systems are suitable for installation in enclosed water bodies as well as coastal embayments, estuarine and lagoon ecosystems. In both Australia and internationally, Lake Diagnostic Systems are installed in lakes, estuarine systems and potable water supply reservoirs and play an important role in the management of public water resources. The LDS is sold by Global Water Monitoring .


Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)

The Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) is used to make short term intense or long time series measurements of current velocities throughout the water column or at specific depths only, depending on the instrument and application. CWR uses a Sontek ADCP 1500kHz unit with two possible modes - incoherent (maximum range ~ 25m) and pulse-coherent (maximum range > 12m).


BBE Fluroprobe

The BBE Fluroprobe is a submersible spectroflurometer for chlorophyll analysis and integrated algae class determination. The Fluoroprobe can detect spectra due to different for blue-green algae, green algae, brown algae, cryptophytae and Yellow substances (DOC).


Fine Scale Profiler (F-probe)

The Fine Scale Profiler is used to make fast measurements of spatially and temporarily varying water quality, useful for characterizing background water quality over time or for detecting transport of tracers during events, such as inflow events. The probe measures temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, chlorophyll-a (or rhodamine) and depth. The probe samples at 50 Hz and falls at approximately 0.5 m/s, giving around 1.0 cm resolution in the vertical. The data is acquired in real time via an umbilical cable, along with the GPS of the profile. The BBE Fluoroprobe can also be attached to measure concentration of four algal groups and DOC (yellow substance).


Microstructure Profiler

The Microstructure Profiler is used to characterize turbulence and mixing in the water body. It is a highly portable instrument measuring temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chl-a, turbidity, PAR and depth at micro-scale resolution (1mm). This instrument has been commercialised into the SCAMP (Self-Contained Autonomous Microstructure Profiler) and is sold by Precision Measurement Engineering (PME).


Portable Flux Profiler (PFP)

The Portable Flux Profiler is used to directly measure turbulent fluxes and other turbulent parameters. Uses a three-axis laser doppler anemometer to measure water velocities in all three directions and also measures conductivity, temperature and depth at the micro-scale (1mm).