Preliminary results of gulf stream ring tracking via satellite-tracked drifters
Abstract
The most promising technique to monitor several rings simultaneously at reasonable cost is to tag each ring with a satellite tracked, freedrifting buoy. The initial investigation began in the fall of 1978 and utilized five air deployable buoys. The buoys transmitted to the NIMBUS-6 satellite Random Access Measurement System and the position of the buoy was calculated from the Doppler shifted signal. Two buoys were launched in September and one in November 1978. One drifter remained trapped in its ring for 110 days before drifting out into the Sargasso Sea. A second ring was tracked for 39 days before it coalesced with the Gulf Stream which swept the buoy eastward. The third drifter left its ring in 15 days after completing a large 150 km loop around the ring perimeter. The remaining two buoys were deployed in March 1979. One buoy was tracked for only one month at which time the frequency of the transmitted signals drifted outside the allowable limits. The last buoy, which is still transmitting, provided real time tracking of the ring through June when Navy laboratories conducted Gulf Stream ring acoustics experiments.
- Publication:
-
In CNES Data Collection and Location by Satellite 11 p (SEE N81-27170 18-15
- Pub Date:
- 1979
- Bibcode:
- 1979dcls.conf.....B
- Keywords:
-
- Buoys;
- Gulf Stream;
- Nimbus 6 Satellite;
- Ocean Currents;
- Tracking (Position);
- Deployment;
- Drift Rate;
- Mesoscale Phenomena;
- Ocean Data Acquisitions Systems;
- Tiros Operational Satellite System;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles