Technical note: False low turbidity readings from optical probes during high suspended-sediment concentrations

Voichick, Nicholas; Topping, David J.; Griffiths, Ronald E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1767-2018

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1767-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1767-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

Technical note

|

12 Mar 2018

Technical note |

| 12 Mar 2018

Technical note: False low turbidity readings from optical probes during high suspended-sediment concentrations

Nicholas Voichick, David J. Topping, and Ronald E. Griffiths

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Final revised paper (published on 12 Mar 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 04 Oct 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Nov 2017
- AC1: 'Questions for Referee #1', Nicholas Voichick, 22 Nov 2017
  - EC1: 'Comment on line number', Bettina Schaefli, 27 Nov 2017
- AC2: 'Response to Referee #1 comments:', Nicholas Voichick, 18 Dec 2017
RC2: 'comment on “Technical Note: False low turbidity readings during high suspended sediment concentrations” by Nicholas Voichick et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 Nov 2017
- AC3: 'Response to Referee #2 comments', Nicholas Voichick, 19 Dec 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (08 Jan 2018) by Bettina Schaefli

AR by Nicholas Voichick on behalf of the Authors (09 Jan 2018)

ED: Publish as is (24 Jan 2018) by Bettina Schaefli

AR by Nicholas Voichick on behalf of the Authors (02 Feb 2018)

Short summary

This paper describes instances in the Grand Canyon study area and a laboratory experiment in which very high suspended-sediment concentrations result in incorrectly low turbidity recorded with a commonly used field instrument. If associated with the monitoring of a construction or dredging project, false low turbidity could result in regulators being unaware of environmental damage caused by the actually much higher turbidity.