Description of a Folded Five-Electrode Conductivity Cell for Towed Applications

Towed instrumentation cables have been developed for use in the marine research community to obtain profile measurements of some physical oceanographic parameters down to 100 meters and over a lateral range. The Technical Planning and Development Group at Oregon State University has been progressively expanding and improving the capability and reliability of a faired instrumented cable system called DIPS (Distributed Instrumentation Profiling System), that can be conveniently deployed and maintained by a four-man research team on a 30-meter research vessel. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the profiling cable system, with a greater focus on the description and operation of a folded five-electrode conductivity cell.