The Aquadopp Profiler (AquaPro) and AWAC can make two different types of measurements. These are Current Profiles and Wave Bursts. However, the legacy instruments cannot perform these two at the same time. One measurement mode has to take precedence when they are schedule at the same time, and this happens to be the wave burst. This happens if the wave interval is greater than the current velocity profile interval.

Handling the lost current profile simply requires an interpolation of its neighboring profiles in post-processing. The interpolation is fairly simple: The last current measurements taken before the wave interval started and the first current measurements taken after the wave measurements are added and divided by two. Note that this is only possible when there is just one current interval that are skipped. No interpolation is done if there are several skipped current intervals within the wave interval.  If you do not want interpolated current values, there is an option to avoid it. In the data Conversion dialog you have several options, one of them is Profile Interpolation, and this is checked by default.

The other important note to make regarding the scheduling/timing of the wave burst is that it occurs immediately after a current profile. This is because the wave measurement cycle requires pressure information from the current profile:

Figure 1: An example of a sampling scheme illustrating the skipped average interval.

Furthermore the wave burst is scheduled to occur at its specified interval. The interval is referenced at the end of the first current profile. Therefore there is a perceived “delay” with the wave measurement but this is simply the duration of profile measurement (or the Average Interval).