| Continuous recording of dye fluorescence using field fluorometers at selected sampling sites facilitates acquisition of real-time dye tracing data. The Turner Designs Model 10-AU-005 field fluorometer allows for frequent fluorescence readings, data logging, and easy downloading to a laptop computer. By necessity, the data are periodically broken up into blocks to facilitate downloading and minimize data loss. Unfortunately, the downloaded data do not appear in a readily usable form for discerning trends or for use in modeling packages. A new computer program, Flowthru, bypasses block headers, reads the downloaded data, identifies the time-concentration units used, and relates the data to injection time. All preinjection time-concentration data are accorded background data status and are written to a background file with average temperature values included. All time values recorded after injection time are rewritten into decimal time in time units chosen by the user. Additional features include options for processing selected percentages of the time-concentration data and for using the measured concentrations, average concentrations of data blocks, or smoothed concentrations developed using a moving average filter. Flowthru also allows users to view the data converted to decimal time directly on the computer monitor without program interruption or to go directly to the data plotting routine. Data plotting is extremely rapid and clear, with a smooth line connecting each data point. Each data plot may be saved as a file in a common format. |
