Title :
Surface drifters in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Author :
LaBelle, Robert P. ; Johnson, Walter R. ; Niiler, Pearn P.
Author_Institution :
US Miner. Manage. Service, Herndon, VA, USA
Abstract :
An overview of a year-long field program presently underway in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico is presented. Since February 1996, biweekly deployments of 12-15 air-deployed, satellite-tracked drifters have helped to characterize ocean circulation features along the shelf and shelf-break regions. The devices used are the Davis-style Lagrangian drifters that follow the top 1 meter of the water column and report positions several times a day. The data set being generated is useful for many applications, such as comparisons with results from numerical models of ocean circulation, oil-spill trajectory models, etc. Recent results are presented
Keywords :
oceanographic equipment; oceanographic regions; oceanographic techniques; AD 1996; Gulf of Mexico; Lagrangian drifter; buoy; circulation; circulation feature; coast; dynamics; measurement technique; ocean current; satellite-tracked drifter; shelf-break; surface drifter; upper ocean; Dispersion; Lagrangian functions; Minerals; Numerical models; Oceans; Petroleum; Risk analysis; Risk management; Sea measurements; Sea surface;
Conference_Titel :
OCEANS '96. MTS/IEEE. Prospects for the 21st Century. Conference Proceedings
Conference_Location :
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3519-8
DOI :
10.1109/OCEANS.1996.568342
