Lagrangian drift measurements of sea surface currents and iceberg tracking

摘要

Drogued buoys were tracked by the Nimbus 6 random access measuring system for approximately 10 days in the U.S. East Coast Continental Shelf waters between Delaware Bay and Cape Hatteras in February 1976. The resulting drift values were used to check a numerical model developed at the U.S. Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit for predicting surface currents on the Continental Shelf. Similar buoys were also tracked on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland for the U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol. Lagrangian drift velocities were measured in or near the Labrador Current. Prediction numerical models that were then in use or proposed for use by the Commander, International Ice Patrol, who has the operational responsibility for warning. Following field studies in the area of the Ice Patrol, the lagrangian drift velocities gleaned from the Nimbus 6 RAMS were used to test a numerical model of time-dependent Ekman wind generated currents. Air droppable RAMS buoys deployed from C-130 aircraft were also deployed onto icebergs that break off from Greenland glaciers and drift into the North Atlantic shipping lanes.