©2020 Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office.Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation
©2020 Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office.Drifting buoys are free drifting platforms with a float or buoy that keep the drifter at the surface and underwater sails or socks that catch the current. These instruments sit at the surface of the ocean and are transported via near-surface ocean currents. They are not fixed to the ocean bottom, therefore they "drift" with the currents. For this reason, these instruments are referred to as drifters, or drifting buoys.
The surface float contains sensors that measure different parameters, such as sea surface temperature, barometric pressure, salinity, wave height, etc. Data collected from these sensors are transmitted to satellites passing overhead, which are then relayed to land-based data centers.
definition sources: https://mmisw.org/ont/ioos/platform/drifting_buoy and https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/gdp/faq.php#drifter1
| Dataset Name | PI-Supplied Description | PI-Supplied Name |
|---|---|---|
| Larval Atlantic Bluefin Tuna prey from gut analysis, collected on NOAA Ship R/V Nancy Foster cruises NF1704 and NF1802 in the Gulf of Mexico, May 2017 and May 2018. | a drogued satellite-tracked drifter equipped with a strobe light used to track the larval tuna patch. | |
| Net primary productivity (14C) measurements made during quasi‐Lagrangian experiments on R/V Roger Revelle cruise RR2201 in the Argo basin in the Eastern Indian Ocean/Indonesian throughflow during February and March 2022 | satellite‐tracked Lagrangian drifter | |
| Autonomous buoy position data from Southern Ocean GLOBEC from ARSV Laurence M. Gould LMG0106 in the Southern Ocean from July 2001 | Two of the buoys (07413, 07440) were standard off-the-shelf Met-Ocean Ice buoys.These buoys measured barometric pressure, air temperature, and GPS position. The data were transmitted via ARGOS. The other two buoys (07949, 07950) were custom made CRREL ice mass balance buoys (photo on right). These buoys reported barometric pressure, Argos position, and air temperature. In addition they had a thermistor string that measured a vertical profile of temperature. There were acoustic sensors measuring the positions of the snow surface and ice bottom. A fluorometer was mounted under the ice. One of the buoys (07949) had three spectroradiometers; one mounted about the ice, one mounted directly below the ice, and one a few meters deep in the upper ocean. | Drifter Buoy |
| Radiometer data from autonomous buoy 07949 from ARSV Laurence M. Gould LMG0106 in the Southern Ocean from Aug. to Nov. 2001 (SOGLOBEC project, Sea Ice Microbes project) | Two of the buoys (07413, 07440) were standard off-the-shelf Met-Ocean Ice buoys.These buoys measured barometric pressure, air temperature, and GPS position. The data were transmitted via ARGOS. The other two buoys (07949, 07950) were custom made CRREL ice mass balance buoys (photo on right). These buoys reported barometric pressure, Argos position, and air temperature. In addition they had a thermistor string that measured a vertical profile of temperature. There were acoustic sensors measuring the positions of the snow surface and ice bottom. A fluorometer was mounted under the ice. One of the buoys (07949) had three spectroradiometers; one mounted about the ice, one mounted directly below the ice, and one a few meters deep in the upper ocean. | Drifter Buoy |
| Air temperature and barometric pressure from autonomous buoys from ARSV Laurence M. Gould LMG0106 in the Southern Ocean, Aug-Nov, 2001 (SOGLOBEC project, Sea Ice Microbes project) | buoy installed in drifting ice | Drifter Buoy |
| Thermistor data at 10 cm intervals in air, ice, water from autonomous buoys from ARSV Laurence M. Gould LMG0106 in the Southern Ocean, August to November, 2001 (SOGLOBEC project) | 4 buoys in ice | Drifter Buoy |
| Event log from RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer cruise NBP1801 in the Southern Ocean for the CICLOPS project | Drifter | |
| Temperature and salinity from drifters deployed during R/V Hugh R. Sharp DANCE cruise HRS1414 in the Mid and South-Atlantic Bight from July to August of 2014 (DANCE project) | Model 121 GPS / Iridium drifters by Brightwaters Instruments (BI) with temperature and salinity sensors (http://brightwaters.com/products/121/121.htm). | Model 121 GPS / Iridium drifters by Brightwaters Instruments (BI) |
| Drifters collected from cruises AT11-17, AT11-30, TN200, TUIM14MV, W0306A, W0308C from the Coastal Waters off Washington State and Vancouver Island; 2003-2006 (ECOHAB-PNW project) | Clearwater Instrumentation, Inc ClearSat-1 surface drifters Brightwaters Instrument Co. models 104A and 115. | Drifter Buoy |
| CT Drifter measurements from multiple R/V Wecoma cruises in the Northeast Pacific coastal waters off states of Washington and Oregon from 2004 to 2006 (RISE project) | Brightwater Corp. Model 104a | Drifter Buoy |
| EXP Drifter measurements from R/V Wecoma multiple cruises in the Northeast Pacific coastal waters off states of Washington and Oregon from 2004 to 2006 (RISE project) | Brightwater Corp. Model 115 | Drifter Buoy |
| Drifter data movies on Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and other sources as part of the U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank project | Drifter buoy to include the Beardsley Drifter (BDFT). | Drifter Buoy |
| Drifter movie data collected from the Southern Ocean, 2001 and 2003 (SOGLOBEC project) | Drifter buoy to include the Beardsley Drifter (BDFT) | Drifter Buoy |
| Initial drifter deployment positions from R/V Endeavor, R/V Albatross IV, R/V Oceanus, R/V Delaware, R/V Cape Hatteras, CCGS Cygnus, and R/V Parizeau in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank from 1995-1999 | Satellite-tracked drifters with holey sock drogues centered at 10, 15 and 40-m depths were deployed over Georges Bank during 1995-99. The GLOBEC Georges Bank drifters were made by Clearwater (CW), Seimac (SE), Technocean (TE), and MEtocean (ME). | Drifter Buoy |
| Drifter track data from drifters deployed on multiple R/V Endeavor, Albatross IV, Oceanus, Delaware, Cape Hatteras, Parizeau, and CCGS Cygnus cruises in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank from 1995-1999 (GLOBEC) | Drifter Buoy | |
| Scanfish data from dye injection studies on Georges Bank from R/V Oceanus cruise OC342 in 1999 as part of the U.S. GLOBEC program (GB project) | Drifter buoy to include the Beardsley Drifter (BDFT) | Drifter Buoy |
| CTD data from 4 floats near the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) shelf near Marguerite Bay from ARSV Laurence M. Gould LMG0302 in the Southern Ocean from 2003-2003 (SOGLOBEC project) | Often called isobaric floats, these were designed to repeat the following cycle: (a) sink to 250 db; (b) drift with the current at that level for 5 days; (c) sink to a greater depth 450-m and immediately begin an ascent to the surface, rapidly collecting temperature, conductivity and pressure data; (d) drift at the surface transmitting the environmental data and GPD position data using ARGOS. After completing this cycle the float sinks to 250-m to start the next cycle. | Drifter Buoy |
| GPS drifters monitoring flow direction set off the coast of the West coast of Leyte, the Philippines in the municipalities of Albuera and Bay Bay City, May - June 2017 | Pacific Gyre Microstars with drogue centered at 1 meter below the surface. Corner-radar-reflector-type drogue with iridium SBD communication. Purchased in 2017 | Pacific Gyre Microstars |
| Data from freely drifting kelp plants tagged with drifters in the Santa Barbara Channel between November of 2015 and December of 2017 | More information about Microstar drifters (manufactured by Pacific Gyre Corp.) can be found in Ohlmann et al., 2005. | Microstar drifter |
| Small scale drifters deployed from 10 process cruises into the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank from 1995-1999 as part of the U.S. GLOBEC program (GB project) | Drifter buoy to include the Beardsley Drifter (BDFT) | Drifter Buoy |
| Gross and integrated gross oxygen productivity from R/V Atlantis II cruise AII-119-4 in the North Atlantic in 1989 (U.S. JGOFS NABE project) | Used to obtain samples. | Drifter Buoy |
| Phytoplankton growth and grazing mortality from fluorometric chlorophyll a sampled in the Gulf of Mexico on R/V Nancy Foster cruises in May 2017 and May 2018 | The drift array (Pacific Gyre, San Diego) consisted of a surface float, a 3-m drogue centered at 15 m, coated-wire with stainless-steel attachment rings for in situ bottle incubations, and a separately attached smaller float with iridium transmission (10-min position frequency) and nighttime strobe light. | drift array |
| Phytoplankton growth and grazing mortality from HPLC pigments sampled in the Gulf of Mexico on R/V Nancy Foster cruises in May 2017 and May 2018 | The drift array (Pacific Gyre, San Diego) consisted of a surface float, a 3-m drogue centered at 15 m, coated-wire with stainless-steel attachment rings for in situ bottle incubations, and a separately attached smaller float with iridium transmission (10-min position frequency) and nighttime strobe light. | drift array |
| Protist carbon from microscopy samples collected in the Argo Basin of the Eastern Indian Ocean on R/V Roger Revelle cruise RR2202 from Feb to Mar 2022 | The mixed layer was followed in a Lagrangian frame of reference using subsurface drogues attached to satellite-tagged marker buoys (Landry et al. 2009; Stukel et al. 2015). | subsurface drogues attached to satellite-tagged marker buoys |
| Surface drifter measurements of temperature and drogue tension from cruises KOK1108 and MR11-06 in the Western Equatorial Pacific and Kuroshio Extension (Fukoshima Radionuclide Levels project) | /*-->*/ SVP and SVP-barometer drifters | Drifter Buoy |