Global Drifter Program Technical Achievements

1. WOCE/TOGA LAGRANGIAN DRIFTER
   • 440 day half life
   • deployed by VOS (98% survival) and air (78%)
   • sensors: SST, barometer, "seacat", irradiance
   • ARGOS and GPS capability for location
   • manufactured by seven countries; two U.S. firms
2. OBSERVING ARRAY
   • 450 reporting drifters in Pacific and Atlantic
   • Indian and Southern oceans arrays funded
   • operational met. and ocean. utilization on GTS
3. DATA FLOW
   • "Service Argos" sends data to GTS, DBDAC
   • Drifting Buoy Data Assembly Center (DBDAC),AOML, processes data
   • DBDAC distributes data on the internet DAC
   • DBDAC also sends data to MEDS, Canada, the general data users center