Abstract:

Over 1000 near-surface biodegradable drifters were deployed in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January-February 2016 as part of the CARTHE Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER). The drifters were drogued at 0.5 m depth and reported their positions in real-time using SPOT GPS units nominally every 5 minutes for about 3 months. No temperature or salinity sensors were attached to these drifters. This dataset contains the raw data, except that duplicate entries, out-of-range positions, and data before launch have been eliminated. Data covers the period 20 January through 1 May 2016. This dataset was created by the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE). This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Suggested Citation:

Eric D'Asaro, Cedric Guigand, Angelique Haza, Helga Huntley, Guillaume Novelli, Tamay Özgökmen, Ed Ryan. 2017. Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER) surface drifters, raw, Gulf of Mexico, January - May 2016. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7MS3R6V

Publications:

Haza, A. C., D’Asaro, E., Chang, H., Chen, S., Curcic, M., Guigand, C., … Shcherbina, A. (2018). Drogue-Loss Detection for Surface Drifters during the Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER). Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 35(4), 705–725. doi:10.1175/jtech-d-17-0143.1

Lodise, J., Özgökmen, T., Griffa, A., & Berta, M. (2019). Vertical structure of ocean surface currents under high winds from massive arrays of drifters. Ocean Science, 15(6), 1627–1651. doi:10.5194/os-15-1627-2019

Lodise, J., Özgökmen, T., Gonçalves, R. C., Iskandarani, M., Lund, B., Horstmann, J., … Guigand, C. (2020). Investigating the Formation of Submesoscale Structures along Mesoscale Fronts and Estimating Kinematic Quantities Using Lagrangian Drifters. Fluids, 5(3), 159. doi:10.3390/fluids5030159

Rascle, N., Chapron, B., Molemaker, J., Nouguier, F., Ocampo‐Torres, F. J., Osuna Cañedo, J. P., … Horstmann, J. (2020). Monitoring Intense Oceanic Fronts Using Sea Surface Roughness: Satellite, Airplane, and In Situ Comparison. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125(8). doi:10.1029/2019jc015704

Purpose:

The drifters were released to study submesoscale dispersion at the ocean surface.

Data Parameters and Units:

Drifter id, Date (YYYY-MM-DD), Time (HH:MM), Vessel, Latitude (decimal degrees), Longitude (decimal degrees), Drogue uncertainty date (days since 2016-01-01), Drogue loss date (days since 2016-01-01), Precision level, Drogue status, Gps anomaly (days since 2016-01-01), Drogue loss estimate (days since 2016-01-01)

Individual Files: