- Basic description/methods
- Surface drifters (called "Rachels") were deployed for both HAB and RW studies
These are standard surface drifters as originally designed for the Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (Davis, 1985). They consist of four ~1m2, subsurface, cloth sails mounted orthogonally around a 4-foot length of 2-inch PVC pipe, supported by fiberglass rods, floated by 4 pairs of fish net buoys, and ballasted by a 7 pound window sash weight. - Drogued drifters (called "Grahams") were also deployed (Bay of Fundy and in Boston Harbor) in 2006.
- The unique feature of both of the above is a low-cost GPS transmitter (as used in the trucking industry) mounted topside that sends near-hourly fixes to the low-orbitting GLOBALSTAR satellite. The positions are are available on the internet within minutes and near-daily summary plots are generated on a publically available web site.
- To view realtime hourly positions (a few minutes after they sample) click here
- To access "processed" data click here and query database. To access "raw" data call Jim at 508-495-2211.
- Summary plots (click thumbnail for full image)
-
Individual 2006
drifter tracks and velocity time series
Launch Location
Date Deployer (track)
ID# (Speed)
Fate
Truro 5 May R/V ALBATROSS 65291 recovered by sport fisherman, Brian Barlow, out of Pt Judith RI R/V ALBATROSS 65292 recovered by Sarah Oktay of UMASS Nantucket Field Station R/V ALBATROSS 65293 recovered by Maureen Taylor's friend "Sue" on Nantucket 16 May R/V ALBATROSS 65294 recovered by a Newington, NH lobsterman, Scott Ellis, on eastern Georges Bank on 22 Aug 2006 (last transmission 28 July) R/V ALBATROSS 65295 Georges Bank and beyond Boston Outfall 11 May R/V TIOGA 65201 ashore at Cohassett, Ma R/V TIOGA 65202 ashore on Peddocks Island inside Boston Harbor R/V TIOGA 65203 ashore at Brant Rock, Ma Stellwagen 18 May R/V TIOGA 65204 recovered ashore by Lockport, Nova Scotia fish processor, Peter Morash R/V TIOGA 65205 Georges Banks intermittent; last fix 8 July R/V TIOGA 65206 Georges Bank and beyond Isle au Haut 11 June R/V OCEANUS 66381 recovered and redeployed by Matinicus lobsterman, John Melquist R/V OCEANUS 66382 brought ashore and stored in Valerie Simmons cellar at "Donald's Dock", Friendship Maine R/V OCEANUS 66383 recirculated to Maine Coastal Current R/V OCEANUS 66384 recovered by unknown Digby lobsterman on 12 July; redeployed on 16 July 2006; recovered by Baxter Stewart of the Canadian Coast Guard out of St. John's New Brunswick on 10 August R/V OCEANUS 66385 recovered by Digby salmon fishermen, Todd Mosher, and brought in on 11 July R/V OCEANUS 66386 recirculated to Maine Coastal Current Bay of Fundy 13 June R/V OCEANUS 66461 recovered by Campobello mariner, Mack Green, aground on a ledge R/V OCEANUS 66462 hung up west of Grand Manan; last fix 24 June R/V OCEANUS 66463 brought to Rockland Maine by herring fisherman Joe Martin on 5 July R/V OCEANUS 66464 Maine coastal current R/V OCEANUS 66465 hung up east of Grand Manan; last fix 7 July; sighted by Monhegan lobsterman Rusty Spier on 24 July, reported two years later (21 May 2008) by Matt Schweier of Monhegan who mailed transmitter back R/V OCEANUS 66466 hung up east of Grand Manan; last fix 28 June R/V OCEANUS 66467 3 times around gyre and on to the Western Maine Coastal Current R/V OCEANUS 66468 hung up and recovered by Machiasport Maine lobsterman Craig Wood; last fix 22 June R/V OCEANUS 66469 hung up and recovered by Cutler Maine lobsterman, Patrick Feeney, at the "Little River Lobster Co." Cape Ann 15 Jun R/V OCEANUS 66201 Georges Bank and beyond R/V OCEANUS 66202 Europe? R/V OCEANUS 66203 GoM gyre 30 Jun R/V TIOGA 66204 towards Nova Scotia; last fix 8 August R/V TIOGA 66205 towards Nova Scotia; last fix 28 July Boston Harbor 27 June R/V Key Largo 66207 (surface) Gulf of Maine Gyre R/V Key Largo 66208 (drogued) Georges Bank gyre Casco Bay 7 Sept R/V 69391 ???? R/V 69392 ????
Note: All units were made by marine science students at the Southern Maine Community College. While most are standard "surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, the Bay of Fundy units have 10m subsurface drogue centered at 15m below the surface. For details, call 508-495-2211 or email james.manning@noaa.gov.
Seasuface temperature from satellite sensors
Note: Satellite image data is provided by the remote sensing lab at UMaine Orono. They caution that, while the patterns may be ok, the actual values may be biased high.
- Data streams to ship (on request):
- GoMOOS Moorings
- "autogomoos" crontabbed perl which runs "atsee/getgomoos.m" and emails to ship daily
- NOS Sealevel
- "nos_new.pl" extracts data from web
- "atsee/proc_sl.m" parses and merges to generate "obszeta_2005-05-XX.dat" file
- NOAA weather forecast
- visit http://www.maineharbors.com/cgi-bin/weather/mhwx.cgi?state=us&forecast=margyx&case=0
- cut paste appropriate to /data5/jmanning/wind/raw/mayXX05.dat
- manually check on format consistent w/ previous
- run "atsee/noaa2wstr.m" to generate "noaafcast_2005-05-XX.dat" file
- NCEP weather forecast
- run "atsee/getncep.m" which does DODS query for the node at GOMOOS buoy "E" & generates "ncepfcast_2006_06_XX.dat"
- SST Imagery
- visit http://wavy.umeoce.maine.edu/ and browse images for clear ones
- find actual data at: http://wavy.umeoce.maine.edu/GOMOOS/avhrr/mcsst/GOM/2005/may/ download to /data5/jmanning/images/2005
- put new file name in "atsee/pthname.dat" list
- run "atsee/i2m_batch.m" after manually specifying temperature range of interest
- use multipl axis commands to focus on various sections of the GoM
- load "drift_whcohh.dat" file to overlay drifters
- Drifter Data Plots
- run "atsee/axtrack.m" after specifying "wplot=*0" for 200* batch
- generates plots linked to above and "drift_2006.dat" where the latter is the ascii data file
- FTP to ftp.seanet.int
- "ftpthis" is a perl routine that ftps all of the above to the ship
 all tracks in 2006 |
 Early May off Truro |
 Mid- May off Truro |
 Mid-June off Isle au Haut |
 Mid-June in Bay of Fundy |
 Mid-June off Cape Ann |
 Late-June off Cape Ann |
 Late-June inside Boston Harbor |
