In Reply Refer To:
Mail Stop 415
July 22, 2008
OFFICE OF SURFACE WATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM 2008.03
The purpose of this memo is to provide information about the Office of Surface Water’s (OSW) Hydroacoustics Work Group (HaWG), including its charter, membership changes, and information about the HaWG’s activities.
In 1996 the Hydroacoustic Workgroup (HaWG) was established by the OSW as a means to develop technical guidance and training for users of hydroacoustics instruments in the field. USGS staff from various Water Science Center (WSC) offices, the National Research Program (NRP), the Geologic Discipline, and other agencies have served on the HAWG. In the early stages of its existence, the HAWG was invaluable in providing guidance, testing instruments, developing training, etc. During this period, OSW did not have much experience in hydroacoustic instrumentation and had to rely heavily on the HAWG for expertise.
In recent years, the OSW has been able to devote significant resources (including several full time staff members) to support Hydroacoustics. During this same period, several members of the HaWG stepped down from the committee due to other commitments. While beginning to search for replacement members, the OSW also decided to develop a formal charter for the HaWG to explain the HaWG’s role, how it functions, and members’ responsibilities. This memorandum formally establishes the HaWG as an OSW workgroup to function in accordance with the attached charter.
The current members of the HaWG are listed below. The membership of the HaWG is kept up to date on OSW’s Hydroacoustics web pages at: http://hydroacoustics.usgs.gov/
Name |
Organization/Office |
email address |
| Paul Diaz | USGS-Colorado WSC | pdiaz@usgs.gov |
| Liz Hittle | USGS-Pennsylvania WSC | ehittle@usgs.gov |
| Victor Levesque | USGS-Florida WSC | levesque@usgs.gov |
| David S. Mueller | USGS-OSW | dmueller@usgs.gov |
| Kevin Oberg | USGS-OSW | kaoberg@usgs.gov |
| Roy Wellman | USGS-Oregon WSC | rwellman@usgs.gov |
| Cathy Ruhl | USGS-California WSC | caruhl@usgs.gov |
| Marinna Martini | USGS-GD-Coastal and Marine Geology | mmartini@usgs.gov |
| John Goodson | S. Florida Water Management District | jgoodson@sfwmd.gov |
| Paul-Emile Bergeron | Environment Canada | paul-emile.bergeron@ec.gc.ca |
| Jeff Woodward | Environment Canada | Jeff.Woodward@ec.gc.ca |
The HaWG has been a very active and productive group. Over the years, the HaWG has helped develop and teach training classes on the use of hydroacoustic instruments, planned and commissioned the preparation of reports, including a quality-assurance plan, operational manuals, and a report on validating acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) discharge measurements. In addition, the HaWG has been instrumental in the development of policies and techniques on the use of ADCPs and Flowtrackers and has sponsored several Hydroacoustics Workshops. Information about HaWG activities, products, and tools - including training courses, policy memorandums, reports, and software - are available from OSW’s Hydroacoustics web pages at: http:// hydroacoustics.usgs.gov/
Since the HaWG serves as an advisory committee to the OSW, I encourage you to contact them about any technical issues related to hydroacoustics instrumentation. You may contact either the entire HaWG (hawg@simon.er.usgs.gov) or members of the HaWG in your area using the email addresses above.
Stephen F. Blanchard /signed/
Attachment: HaWG Charter