Drifters 2002 Research Topics and Issues
Ocean surface wind direction and speed observations from 81 drifters in several regions of the world ocean are analyzed. The data observation periods for all drfiters are presented below. Days are numbered starting with January 1, 1998 = day 1; "A8" means August 1988, and "J0" means January 2000, etc.The drifter's wind direction and speed observations will
be compared with QSCAT data, which start on July 19, 1999.
Here are some preliminary plots for 3 drifters:
- Drifter 12733 (East and South of Azores, in North Atlantic).
5/2/1999 - 6/23/2001, days 122 - 907 = 784, 15977 data records.
- Drifter 17928 (East of Azores, in North Atlantic).
2/27/2001 - 5/31/2002, days 791 - 1251 = 459, 11335 data records.
- Drifter 12989 (North of Cuba, in North Atlantic).
8/4/1999 - 7/10/2000, days 216 - 558 = 342, 3313.
Drifter Tracks
The tracks are labeled every 60 days. Click on the image for a bigger version of the plot.
Wind Direction and Speed Data
Only a few short examples are shown for direction and speed vs. time. The data from files "plot.NNNNN" are shown in black, the "gts_plot.NNNNN" are in red. Click on the image for a bigger version of the plot. Note, that the time interval on the plots is 20 days for the Azores drifters (12733 & 17928), but 60 days for drifter 12989.
Drifter 12733
Drifter 17928
Drifter 12989
Colocation with QSCAT data
Drifter data and colocated QSCAT wind speed and direction are depicted below, including timeseries of the
differences, and scatterplots.
Here are the results from the computation of the correction coefficients for drifter 6686. Note, that after the correction,
5 points out of 79 colocated data are outside of +/- 2*RMS (RMS=20.8°), see the red lines and 5 red points in the figure
on the right below.
last modified on September 30, 2002
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