PRELIMINARY SIDE-SCAN ADCP MEASUREMENTS ACROSS A SHIPS WAKE

A preliminary study shows how a standard acoustic Doppler current prof iler, tilted so two beams scan horizontally beneath the surface, can b e used to map characteristics of a ship's wake. For example, the measu rements appear to resolve the flow of surface water outward from the w ake centerline. This centerline divergence and the resulting convergen ce along the edges of the wake help form bands of relatively calm wate r that often appear in radar imagery of the sea surface.