Direction of the vertical velocity

The direction of the vertical velocity of the profiler is important. Most vertical profilers collect data while they are descending, and the data collected while ascending is useless because the probes are in the wake of the instrument and there is no oncoming flow over the shear probes. However, some profilers are designed to collect data while they are ascending and the data collected during it descent is not useable. Gliders can produce meaningful data while descending and ascending. So, it is important to know what type of instrument was used to collect your shear-probe data, so that you select data from when it was travelling in the appropriate direction.

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