Systems and methods for determining the fraction of a first phase of a
multiphase fluid flow stream, such as the amount of water in crude
petroleum oil flowing from a production well or container. An electrical
property, such as permittivity, and a physical property, such as density,
are used as the basis of the improved characterization. The method is
particularly well-suited to reduce salinity-dependent uncertainties for
wells experiencing high water cuts. A time series of measurements is
collected, and the extrema of the observed values are used to generate a
hindsight auto-calibration and correction to the other values using
knowledge of the degree of uncertainty in the measurements caused by
variable salinity and variable phase state of the multiphase fluid. The
hindsight auto-calibration and corrections thus permit more accurate
measurements of the instantaneous and the cumulative amounts of each
phase in the multiphase fluid flow stream.