About data types

Data type

Description

Angular position

Sample values are two angles describing the detected position of the sample in the beam (determined from split beam phase measurements)

Boolean

Sample values are either false or true

Color

Sample values are 24-bit RGB quantities, with separate red, green and blue intensities in the range 0 to 255

Current velocity magnitude

The magnitude of one of the current velocity vectors returned by an ADCP

Linear

Real numbers with unspecified units

Multibeam boolean

Sample values are either false or true

Multibeam color

Sample values are 24-bit RGB quantities, with separate red, green and blue intensities in the range 0 to 255

Multibeam magnitude

Un-calibrated echo magnitude in linear units

Multibeam phase

Received signal phase (quadrature) in radians (-p to p)

Multibeam Sv

Volume backscattering strength (dB re 1m-1) for multibeam data

Multibeam targets

Detected targets with a range, angular position, and Sv value

Multibeam unspecified dB

Multibeam sample values are dB values that are unreferenced, ie neither Sv nor TS

Single targets

Detected single targets with a range, angular position (for split beam targets) and target strength as a TS value

Sv

Volume backscattering strength (dB re 1m-1)

Same as the Single targets data type reporting target length (cm) in place of target strength (TS).

TS

Point backscattering strength data (dB re 1m2)

See also: Single targets.

Unspecified dB

Sample values are dB values that are not Sv or TS
(e.g. the result subtracting one Sv value from another)