Topic
Global Drifter Program
About: Global Drifter Program is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 165 publications have been published within this topic receiving 6290 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: A major accomplishment of the recently completed Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program was the development of an ocean observing system to support seasonal-to-interannual climate studies.
Abstract: A major accomplishment of the recently completed Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program was the development of an ocean observing system to support seasonal-to-interannual climate studies. This paper reviews the scientific motivations for the development of that observing system, the technological advances that made it possible, and the scientific advances that resulted from the availability of a significantly expanded observational database. A primary phenomenological focus of TOGA was interannual variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system associated with El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO).Prior to the start of TOGA, our understanding of the physical processes responsible for the ENSO cycle was limited, our ability to monitor variability in the tropical oceans was primitive, and the capability to predict ENSO was nonexistent. TOGA therefore initiated and/or supported efforts to provide real-time measurements of the following key oceanographic variables: surface winds, sea surface temperature, subsurface temperature, sea level and ocean velocity. Specific in situ observational programs developed to provide these data sets included the Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean (TAO) array of moored buoys in the Pacific, a surface drifting buoy program, an island and coastal tide gauge network, and a volunteer observing ship network of expendable bathythermograph measurements. Complementing these in situ efforts were satellite missions which provided near-global coverage of surface winds, sea surface temperature, and sea level. These new TOGA data sets led to fundamental progress in our understanding of the physical processes responsible for ENSO and to the development of coupled ocean-atmosphere models for ENSO prediction.
1,112 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a particle-trajectory tracer approach was used to study the fate of marine debris in the open ocean from coastal regions around the world on interannual to centennial timescales, finding that six major garbage patches emerged, one in each of the five subtropical basins and one previously unreported patch in the Barents Sea.
Abstract: Much of the debris in the near-surface ocean collects in so-called garbage patches where, due to convergence of the surface flow, the debris is trapped for decades to millennia. Until now, studies modelling the pathways of surface marine debris have not included release from coasts or factored in the possibilities that release concentrations vary with region or that pathways may include seasonal cycles. Here, we use observational data from the Global Drifter Program in a particle-trajectory tracer approach that includes the seasonal cycle to study the fate of marine debris in the open ocean from coastal regions around the world on interannual to centennial timescales. We find that six major garbage patches emerge, one in each of the five subtropical basins and one previously unreported patch in the Barents Sea. The evolution of each of the six patches is markedly different. With the exception of the North Pacific, all patches are much more dispersive than expected from linear ocean circulation theory, suggesting that on centennial timescales the different basins are much better connected than previously thought and that inter-ocean exchanges play a large role in the spreading of marine debris. This study suggests that, over multi-millennial timescales, a significant amount of the debris released outside of the North Atlantic will eventually end up in the North Pacific patch, the main attractor of global marine debris.
520 citations
TL;DR: In this article, near-surface coastal currents were made off the Northern California coast during the Coastal Dynamics Experiment (CODE) by using 164 current-following drifters, and the results disclosed a number of energetic mesoscale features that dominate across-shelf transport.
Abstract: Observations of near-surface coastal currents were made off the Northern California coast during the Coastal Dynamics Experiment (CODE) by using 164 current-following drifters. Viewed as flow visualization descriptions, the results disclose a number of energetic mesoscale features that dominate across-shelf transport. Examples of eddies, jets, convergences and across-shelf “squirts” are shown and related to moored current observations, wind forcing, and mesoscale features observed in satellite surface temperature imagery. Convergences appear to be most common when currents reverse following relaxation of normally upwelling-favorable winds. Squirts are apparently the cause of cold water plumes extending away from the coast; they appear most frequently at coastal promontories.
467 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, three mean dynamic topography maps derived with different methodologies are presented, combining sea level observed by the high-accuracy satellite radar altimetry with the geoid model of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which has recently measured the earth's gravity with unprecedented spatial resolution and accuracy.
Abstract: Presented here are three mean dynamic topography maps derived with different methodologies. The first method combines sea level observed by the high-accuracy satellite radar altimetry with the geoid model of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which has recently measured the earth’s gravity with unprecedented spatial resolution and accuracy. The second one synthesizes near-surface velocities from a network of ocean drifters, hydrographic profiles, and ocean winds sorted according to the horizontal scales. In the third method, these global datasets are used in the context of the ocean surface momentum balance. The second and third methods are used to improve accuracy of the dynamic topography on fine space scales poorly resolved in the first method. When they are used to compute a multiyear time-mean global ocean surface circulation on a 0.5° horizontal resolution, both contain very similar, new small-scale midocean current patterns. In particular, extensions of western boundary c...
289 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2018 | 5 |
| 2017 | 12 |
| 2016 | 10 |
| 2015 | 6 |