Dataset: Raw drifter data from RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer and ARSV Laurence M. Gould cruises NBP0103, LMG0103, LMG0201A, and NBP0202 in the Southern Ocean from 2001-2002 (SOGLOBEC project)

ARGOS Tracked Near Surface Drifter Data
The following was extracted from the Cruise Report of the N.B. Palmer Cruise 01-03. The complete cruise report can be seen here or on the SO GLOBEC web site under the object "Inventory"

2.0 Drifter Measurements (Bob Beardsley and Dick Limeburner)
Surface drifters are being deployed and tracked via satellite to study the near surface Lagrangian currents in the SO GLOBEC study area on the western Antarctic Peninsula Shelf. Each drifter has a small (~ 30 cm diameter) surface float with ARGOS transmitter and batteries tethered to a holey sock drogue centered at 15 m below the surface. The drogue, about 10 m tall and 1 m in diameter, is designed to "lock" itself to the water so that the surface float follows the mean water motion at 15 m depth with very little slippage even in high winds. Thus measuring the drifter's position as a function of time provides a Lagrangian measurement of the 15-m ocean current.

Data contributed by:
Richard Limeburner
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, MA 02543
e-mail: rlimeburner@whoi.edu

file updated June 18 2012; smr.