2013 Drifter Tracks
resolving transport pathways through New England's estuarine and continental shelf waters and beyond

updated every two hours


To see a GoogleMap of just this week's tracks, click here.
To see the process of getting involved with the project, click here.
To see this week's tracks overlaid on other fields (sst, models, etc), go to the MARACOOS site here and click on "Drifter" layer.
To see a description of the drifters, click here.
To blog about students deploying drifters with our MATE colleagues,click here.
To see drifter newsletters, click here.
To see drifters documented on the NERACOOS website, click here.
To see drifters in the news, click here.
To see plots of this year's tracks, see links in table below.
To download raw data of this years drifters, click here.
To see raw statistics click here.
To download tracks stored in historical database, click here.
To calculate and reserve a "deployment id", click here.
To document a drifter deployment, click here.
To document a drifter recovery, click here.

To see last year's webpage, click here.
To get PYTHON and/or MATLAB processing routines, email james.manning@noaa.gov for the latest versions.

Get the Flash Player to see this animation.


To see information on individual clusters, click the links in the following cronological table


Institution
(data)
Deployer
(cruise report)
Date Deployed
(animation)
Dropsite
#units Science
Status
(customized googlemap)
Type of Unit
(photo)
Fate
(photo)
Educational PassagesBaldwin12 May 2012 Gulf Stream 5educational underwayboats under sail boats under sail; blown ashore by two tropical storms Alberto and Beryll landing 25 May through 29 May, and relaunched a few weeks later. Two washed ashore in Newfoundland on 20 August, recovered with help from Clarence Careen and Alphonsus Murphy, refurbished by Dwight Howse, and redeployed on Oct 11th just west of the Grand Banks. One apparently went down in Hurrican Raphael mid-ocean. One landed in South Wales and was redeployed SW of the Azores at end of March 2013.
Penn State/GLERLBoughton/Schwab07 May 2012
17 May 2012
25 Sep 2012
09 Nov 2012
07 Dec 2012
Lake Erie 5educational/science donewood Eddie1st died after 2 days,
2nd apparently went over the falls on 4 June,
3rd failed in late June,
4th lost ballast after a few weeks,
5th apparently lost flotation, washed up a few towns south of Buffalo,
and the 6th hungup a few miles prior to the falls
NOAA Teachers at SeaAnnetta/Haas/Smolowitz01 June 2012 Mid-Atlantic Bight 4educational/turtles donewood Eddie Teacher-made surface drifters get away from the tagged turtles. Of the three entrained into Gulf Stream, one encountered a "warm core ring", another a "cold core ring", and one apparently went down with in the wrath of Hurricane Rafael in mid-October but then cam back to life.
Cape Henlopen High School/Univ. of DelawareGeppert/Luther 20 Aug 2012
22 Oct 2012
Mid Atlantic Bight
Mid Atlantic Ridge
1
1
educationalunderwayexperimental Dans The first deployed mid-shelf, headed northeast, and started failing in early October. The second, deployed mid-ocean, ...
NOAA SEFSC Mansfield 20 Oct 2012
22 Oct 2012
Gulf of Mexico2
2
turtlesdone Eddie/Bucket pairs diverged significantly with one headed west and ...
Educational PassagesBaldwin02 Dec 2012 Gulf Stream 3educational underway!boats under saildeployed Dec 1st off N. Carolina by Joe Robillard...
SMCCLong/Tarbox12 Feb 2013 Casco Bay 1educationaldonewood Eddie usual southward flow for first month through a series of Northeasters that eventually, on the morning of 7 March, shipwrecked it on the outer beach of North Truro Massachusetts where it was apparently buried in the sand
Swampscott High Wilbur13 Mar 2013 Mass Bay 1educationalunderwaywood Eddie deployed by lobsterman Justin Mahoney from Nahant, stalled into Cape Cod Bay for a few weeks, headed quickly to Great South Channel, stalled there for a few weeks, traveled across the Northeast Channel on to the Scotian Shelf, and ... ...
NOAA/PIFSC/TAMARMansfield4-8 Mar 2013 off Brazil4turtlesdone3 buckets & 1 eddie one failed after 1st day but showed up a week later on the beach, the others documented quick advection south along the coast and ended up in the same area
Dartmouth High Brumsted08 Apr 2013 SNE Shelf 1educationaldonewood Eddie deployed by New Bedford scalloper, Carlos Pereira, from the F/V Acores off Wellfleet, washed into Nauset Marsh after a few days of easterlies, recovered by Suzanne Phillips, an ornithologist for the Town of Chatham, picked up by Jim Manning, redeployed as GLPCS by ....
Global Learning Charter SchoolHarris08 Apr 2013 SNE Shelf 1educationaldonewood Eddie deployed by New Bedford scalloper, Carlos Pereira, from the F/V Acores off Wellfleet, washed into Nauset Marsh after a few days of easterlies, recovered by Scott Rushnak while picking mussels, picked up by Janice Dill, head of the "environmetal challenge" group of home schooled children, and redeployed at DHS by ...
New England Science and SailingHorrigan24 Apr 2013 NJ Shelf 2educationalunderwaywood Eddie deployed by a scalloper out of Stonington, Ct, Bob Bomster. One apparently failed with only a few GPS reported after deployment while the other looked healthy for about a week and then started to fail as well mid-shelf
Global Learning Charter and Falmouth High SchoolHarris/Reynolds/Milliken25 Apr 2013Nantucket Sound 1educationalunderwaywood Eddie deployed by Zephyr Education boat with Falmouth High School students aboard, visited Long Island Sound in early May, returned to shelf, ... ...
NOAA/PIFSC/TAMARMansfield01 May 2013 off Brazil4turtlesdone3 buckets & 1 Eddie a few apparently failed on 1st day, but the other two documented quick advection NORTH and then died
Newburyport HighMasterson10 May 2013 Southern Maine Coast 2educationalunderwaywood Eddie deployed by fishermen from Newburyport MA, one episodic with transmissions
Dartmouth High and Environmental Challenge GroupBrumsted/Dill12 May 2013 Georges Bank 1educationalunderwaywood Eddie to be deployed by Fairhaven lobsterman, George Beckford , from the F/V Sallie and Catherine off ....
NOAA/SEFSCMansfield21 May 2013 Gulf of Mexico4turtlesunderway3 buckets & 1 Eddie? refurbished TrackPacks
Cub Scouts & Retirement CenterBaldwinMay 2013 Gulf Stream 2educational plannedboats under sail to be deployed in the Gulf Stream off the State of Maine training vessel
Bristol Community CollegeRakMay 2013SNE Shelf 1educationalplannedPVC Rachel to be deployed by ...
Massasoit Community CollegeMcFadden May 2013 Cape Cod Bay 1educationalplannedwood Eddie to be deployed by fishermen from Plymouth, MA
Truro Elementary and Brewster Family SchoolKlimkosky/O'Leary/Skayne May 2013 East of Cape Cod 2educationalplannedwood Eddie and bamboo Cassie to be deployed by fishermen from Truro, MA
UCONNWhitney June 2013 Long Island Sound 9river inputplannedbamboo Cassie to be deployed by grad students
Gulf of Maine InstituteLockwood July 2013 Digby Nova Scotia 2educationalplannedwood Eddie to be deployed by fishermen from Digby, NS




Note: Most units are prepared by marine science students at the Southern Maine Community College. The majority are standard "surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, but some units, as in the case of EP boats, track the wind and wave at the surface and some have 6m by 0.6m subsurface drogues centered at 15m below the surface. For details, call 508-495-2211 or email james.manning@noaa.gov.