In Reply Refer To:                                                                March 16, 2005 
Mail Stop 415

OFFICE OF SURFACE WATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM 2005.04

SUBJECT: Release of WinRiver Software version 10.06 for Computing Streamflow from Acoustic Profiler Data

The purpose of this memorandum is to announce the availability of WinRiver 10.06 for collecting and processing data collected with RD Instruments (RDI) acoustic profilers (Broadband, Rio Grande, Workhorse, and others). The WinRiver software was developed by RDI, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as a part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). The use of WinRiver software by USGS offices was announced in Office of Surface Water (OSW) Technical Memorandums No. 2000.03, 2002.03, and 2003.04.

This release of WinRiver (10.06) fixes a problem in WinRiver 10.05 that resulted in WinRiver not being able to decode GPS data with some combinations of GPS receivers and laptops and does not involve major changes to the software. Therefore, it is NOT necessary to reprocess discharge measurements made with 10.05. Attachment A contains a list of changes made from WinRiver version 10.05 to version 10.06.

All USGS users who collect streamflow data using RDI ADCP’s should upgrade to WinRiver 10.06. The software is available for download from OSW Hydroacoustics pages at http://hydroacoustics.usgs.gov/software/. Although WinRiver 10.06 has been available from the manufacturer for some time, the OSW has not released this memo until now due to reported problems in the use of GPS with WinRiver. OSW has subsequently determined that these problems were not caused by the WinRiver software.

OSW Technical Memo 2003.04 (http://hydroacoustics.usgs.gov/memos/OSW2003-04.pdf), which documented the release of WinRiver 10.05, contains policies that are still in force and should be followed when using WinRiver 10.06. As a reminder, the following policies and guidance are restated from Technical Memo 2003.04. (More detailed explanations of items 1 – 4 below are available in OSW Technical Memo 2003.04.)

  1. OSW strongly recommends that users use the file-locking feature. Proper use of this feature will help insure that (a) inadvertent changes are not made to the data after the streamflow record is finalized and (b) ADCP data files are not archived with possible inadvertent changes.
  2. Use of the Discharge Measurement Wizard (DMW) is mandatory for discharge measurements made in the basic streamflow data collection program. Use of the wizard will help standardize measurement summaries and make reviewing measurements easier. The ultimate goal is to import the measurement summary information into NWIS.
  3. Users should always use the Configuration Wizard (CW) rather than existing configuration files. Each time a site is visited, the CW should be used in order to insure that current site conditions are reflected in the measurement configuration. If any user commands are used to override direct commands created by the configuration wizard, users must document the reason for their use in the measurement notes. See OSW Technical Memo 2002.03 for details on the CW.
  4. With the implementation of new extrapolation techniques, OSW does not believe that there is any instance where a user should set the bottom extrapolation method to Constant.

For further information on use of the WinRiver, please refer to the Help menu and to the software release notes and documentation. If you have any questions or comments about the policies and guidance in this memo, please contact Kevin Oberg (kaoberg@usgs.gov) or the OSW Hydroacoustics Work Group (hawg@simon.er.usgs.gov).


/signed/
Stephen F. Blachard
Chief, Office of Surface Water


(See attached file: sw2005-04 Attachment A.pdf)

Distribution: Data Chiefs
Surface-Water Specialists
Office of Surface Water
HAWG