Missing instrument used in oceanographic research by Moninya Roughan and colleagues washes up on New Zealand beach

An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) which has been missing for 10 months has washed up on a New Zealand beach. The oceanographic instrument had been deployed by UNSW's Coastal and Regional Oceanography Lab but went adrift after breaking its Bondi Beach mooring in January.

A local discovered the ADCP on New Zealand's Waitarere Beach, to the delight of researchers, including the School's Associate Professor Moninya Roughan who is currently spending a sabbatical at the University of Auckland.

Oceanographers at UNSW are now eager to download the data from the device to see what details it might reveal about its mysterious voyage.

A/Prof Roughan was quoted in a piece about the ADCP's discovery in The New Zealand Herald. She said the instrument was in "remarkably good shape" considering its perilous trip across the Tasman.

ADCPs work by sending out 4 sonar 'pings' of sound waves at a set frequency. From the return echo the speed of the water can be calculated throughout the water column. These instruments collect temperature and pressure data and are usually paired with a thermistor string for temperature profiling and water quality or fluorescence, salinity, turbidity meters at some sites.

These scientific moored arrays are deployed as part of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS).

(Pictured above: A/Prof Moninya Roughan)