Acoustic Tracking of Woodhead Drifters

The NASA Langley Research Center, in collaboration with NOAA-Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories, Miami, Florida, has conducted an investigation to determine the feasibility of tracking Woodhead bottom drifters instrumented with miniature acoustic transmitters that have been developed for fish-tracking applications. Demonstration cruises with the R/V Annandale (Marine Science Consortium) were made at the entrance of Delaware Bay, and near the sewage-sludge dump site in the New York Bight. The results of these tracking missions showed that Lagrangian information on inferred bottom-water circulation, caused by tidal and other nonstorm effects, could be provided by sonar tracking of acoustic Woodhead drifters.