A study of the Gulf Stream using satellite-tracked drogued surface buoys

摘要

A Gulf Stream experiment and a Gulf Stream ring experiment, were performed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The ring experiment was designed to measure the movement of rings in the Sargasso Sea to learn where rings go, what their eventual fate is, and what influences their motion. Measurements were made of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the rings and their changes with time. The purpose of the Gulf Stream experiment was to investigate the general problem of where the Gulf Stream flows and how it disperses and recirculates after passing the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. To help resolve the near-surface flow pattern of the Gulf Stream, several buoys were launched in the Gulf Stream in 1977. In addition, many of the buoys originally launched in rings became entrained into the Gulf Stream as the rings coalesced; these buoys provided many trajectories in the Gulf Stream.