SonTek CastAway CTD

Serviced by Flux Purchase

The SonTek CastAway®-CTD is a compact, handheld conductivity, temperature and depth profiler designed for rapid profiling of lakes, rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and coastal waters.

Simple to deploy and requiring no external pump, the CastAway-CTD provides high-resolution profiles of conductivity, temperature, salinity, sound speed and depth to depths of up to 100 m. Integrated GPS, an onboard colour display and wireless data transfer make it particularly well suited to fast, efficient field surveys.

Key Features

  • Conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) profiling

  • Profiling depth up to 100 m

  • 5 Hz sampling rate

  • Salinity accuracy of ±0.1 PSU

  • Temperature accuracy of ±0.05°C

  • Six-electrode flow-through conductivity cell

  • Fast-response temperature sensor

  • Integrated GPS position and time referencing

  • Onboard colour LCD for immediate profile review

  • Bluetooth wireless data transfer

  • No external pump required

  • Compact, rugged and easy to deploy

Rapid, High-Resolution CTD Profiling

The CastAway-CTD combines a six-electrode conductivity cell with a fast-response thermistor and pressure sensor to produce accurate, high-resolution water column profiles. Its hydrodynamic design allows the instrument to free-fall through the water at approximately 1 m/s while recording at up to 5 Hz.

Conductivity and temperature measurements are used to calculate parameters including salinity, specific conductance, density and sound speed, providing a detailed picture of changing water conditions throughout the water column.

Designed for Efficient Field Surveys

Unlike conventional CTD systems, the CastAway-CTD is completely self-contained and requires minimal setup. Each cast is automatically referenced by time and GPS position, with latitude and longitude recorded before and after the profile.

Data can be reviewed immediately in the field using the integrated display, allowing operators to inspect profiles of conductivity, temperature, salinity and sound speed against depth without returning to a computer.

Recorded data can then be transferred wirelessly to a Windows PC for further analysis, processing and export.

Typical Applications

The SonTek CastAway-CTD is suitable for:

  • Coastal and estuarine surveys

  • Lake and reservoir profiling

  • River and catchment studies

  • Salinity and stratification investigations

  • Environmental monitoring programmes

  • Hydrographic and bathymetric surveys

  • Sound-speed correction for sonar and hydrographic measurements

  • Research and educational applications

Its combination of portability, rapid deployment and immediate field data makes the CastAway-CTD particularly useful where multiple profiles or survey locations need to be completed efficiently in a single field campaign.

Find Out More