Salute!
Will keep beating the horse, 'cause when the FDR's are decoded we will be able to see what actually happened with much higher resolution than the "maintenance" messages sent via ACARS. Could and probably will reflect the whole story.
I go with Chris, another systems engineer re: data recording.
Wrote the spec for a data reduction facility, managed it during test missions and had to provide the "system experts/designers", as well as managers, with good representations of what happened and when for a recce system. Unlike space vehicles, UAV's and manned aircraft experience turbulence that lasts for fractions of a second. This poses problems primarily for video sensors versus RF sensors, as you can imagine.
I look at the VS separation accident ten years ago and realize that many parameters were captured/recorded at rates too slow for the stuff I had worked on, but still good enough to determine the cause of the crash. So comparing the FDR data with the ACARS messages will help all figure out what happened.
I am saddened to see some of the frame rates BEA references, as I cannot rule out a similar scenario where pilot inputs may have aggravated the situation, especially in severe turbulence. And BTW, I have flown thru CB's and it isn't fun, tho I wasn't concerned about structural integrity for the Viper and Sluf. Was more concerned with not getting the jet into a stall or spin or inverted, heh heh.
Bottomline for our discussion, way I see it, is to square away the ACARS transmission protocol/timing, etc. with what we shall see with the decoded FDR data.
Data acquisition units are damned cheap - some even tens of $$$ for precision in terms of tenths of a gee, or fractions of a degree of surface movement, or tenths of feet per second at 100 hz for velocities. It's the final "mother" recorder that has to store it all for later analysis. And much data can be acquired and transmitted with tiny messages, like 8 bits to get 256 th's resolution of a parameter. Only thing I ever had to work with requiring ultra-high resolution and timing was vibration data to characterize optical sensor performance.
Great thread here, and I am tickled we are not getting into conspiracy theories and simplistic suppositions concerning the aerodynamic and structural aspects of the event.