How will my CTD be affected by adjacent objects?

Sea-Bird’s CTDs are not directly affected by adjacent objects, unlike some CTDs that shift their calibration due to proximity effects. However, the CTD can only measure the water it sees. There are 2 concerns to keep in mind when mounting the CTD:

• If the CTD is positioned so that the flow of water is blocked or restricted, the CTD will see water that lags behind the true environment. Also, there is a directivity affect in the conductivity measurement: The instrument measures only the conductivity of the water in its conductivity cell. This conductivity cell is oriented along the long axis of the CTD, so it will work better (i.e., get flushed with water representing the true environment) if water can flow along this axis. This is accomplished by orientation of the conductivity cell parallel to the direction of movement and with the use of a pump.
• The thermal mass of adjacent objects can affect the temperature of the water. If the CTD is near some large object that takes a long time to equilibrate to changing temperature, the temperature of the water in the vicinity will be affected and the CTD will read this affected temperature.