August Cruise SVP drifter release strategy

Here is a proposed plan for the 15 SVP-S drifters to be tested by ROMS, with a goal to have a uniform coverage with the 200x200 km^2 box centered around the flux mooring at 25N and 38W.

Ideas, comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

-Yi (on behalf of Luca and Gilles)

Drifter Release Objectives and Background

The overall objective of the SPURS drifter component is to maintain an optimal (i.e., uniform) coverage within a mesoscale box (e.g.,  150x150 km2) centered around the flux mooring at 25N and 38W.


We have 15 SVP (15-meter) salinity drifters to be released from the Frence Thalassa/Strasse cruise in August 2012, and 36 SVP-S drifters to be released from the US Knorr cruise in September 2012. 


The ideal deployment plan will have a relatively  uniform coverage within the SPURS mesoscale box from August/September 2012 to March 2013, when the 3rd cruise from US and/or Spanish will return to the SPURS box.


(on behalf of Gilles and Luca)

SPURS ROMS Domains

There are three ROMS model domains with increasing spatial resolution of 9-km (L0), 3-km (L1), and 1-km (L2) but over smaller domains, see the image below. The first implementation of the drifter trajectory tool will be over the L1 domain, but will use the 1-km current in the L2 domain.

ROMS model derived drifter trajectories

The ROMS model has been run during 2010-2011, and this image shows that we are ready to release virtual drifters to help the SPURS drifter working group to design the release strategy.

We will put a tool online in the coming days, so that everyone can release their own virtual drifters, and track their trajectories with time.