Introduction for South Atlantic/Southern Oceans Workshop participants.

Mark S. Swenson

NOAA/AOML/Global Drifter Program

June 4, 1997

The submitted material is intended to serve as an overview of the data available from the Global Drifter Program which has grown out of the WOCE Surface Velocity Program. This overview provides an accounting of the data density, as well as estimates of the mean surface velocity field and the variance about that mean on a 5 x 5 degree grid. The information is grouped by region with a map for each quantity for each of the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean. This should be sufficient to decide, in a rough and ready way, how much data exists in a region of particular interest.

The products are provided as html pages that can be viewed with a web browser. Postscript files are also provided for those who might wish to make high-quality copies. Also included is the "DAC World Data File" which contains estimates of mean velocity, variance and number of observations for the globe at a 5 x 5 degree resolution. The beginning of the latter file also contains a brief description of the processing used to produce these products.

We welcome feedback from workshop participants about how well these products meet your needs.

Questions should be directed to me at:

swenson@aoml.noaa.gov
or to Mayra Pazos at:
pazos@aoml.noaa.gov.

Other products may be found at out web site:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/dacdata.html