What do automated sampling stations look like?
A picture of a typical station is shown here. Gaging stations are equipped with portable automatic samplers, ultrasonic flow level sensors, radio or cellular telemetry, 12-volt batteries, Parshall flumes, weir plates, and stilling wells. The flume, weir, stilling well, and flow level sensors are used to measure the height of the water. The flow level sensors record the height of the water through an event and sends the data to a computer through the radio or cellular telemetry. The automated samplers consist of a carousel that holds sample bottles and an electronic control system. The electronic control system can be set to fill bottles from a flow at time intervals, for example, every 5 minutes. The carousel rotates the bottles around on the set time interval so that each bottle contains water from a separate time interval of flow. The batteries are required to power the sampler, flow sensor, and telemetry.
