Sailors participating in the Volvo Ocean Race help NOAA deploy drifters in the Southern Ocean to improve forecasts. Learn More

While attempting to sail around the world, privately owned vessels participating in the Atlantic Odyssey will deploy drifting buoys during their voyage. The first of these drifter deployments was conducted on 26 November. For more information about the Atlantic Odyssey, and their deployment efforts, please Click Here.

In an effort to maximize drifter lifetimes and increase the number of data observations, the Global Drifter Program has created deployment value maps that highlight areas of need, while also identifying areas where drifters will die quickly. Assessing these values on a regional scale will allow program coordinators to better maximize their deployment efforts and increase the quality of drifter spacial coverage. To utilize these new value maps, click here

In celebration of Earth Day,three students from the Key Biscayne K-8 Center, Key Biscayne, FL deployed a NOAA drifter today as part of the Adopt-A-Drifter Program. The three Florida students won a competition to describe the significance of the ocean in their lives. As part of this event, Dr. Rick Lumpkin was interviewed on the Weather Channel, where he described NOAA's Global Drifter Program, and the Adopt-A-Drifter outreach efforts. Watch interview

All of us within the Global Drifter Program are extremely saddened at the passing of Dr. Peter Niiler of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Peter championed the need for a global array of drifters, and through decades of intense effort he saw this dream fulfilled. Peter was an exceptional scientist and an artist who fully enjoyed a rich life, and his intelligence and wit will be greatly missed.

Movies illustrating the Evolution of the Global Drifter Array in five year intervals, since 1979 are available Here

Shortly after the disappearance of Air France flight 447 on May 31, 2009 and the discovery of debris on June 2, the Drifter Data Assembly Center, in Miami, Florida, was contacted by the Hydrographic Center of the Brazilian Navy and French researchers from IFREMER, for in situ, near real time data from surface drifters in the area where the plane disappeared while crossing the Atlantic ocean in route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France. Surface drifter trajectories are useful to estimate how far currents carried the floating debris from the crash site, where heavier equipment such as the "black box" recorders sank. Several drifters were indentified in the area, and to further populate the area, and obtain higher resolution current measurements,to help the search teams locate additional debris and bodies, the Hydrographic Center of the Brazilian Navy deployed five more drifters near the area of the crash on June 14. This active collaboration with the Brazilian Navy and IFREMER follows a long history of cooperation between AOML and international partners.

These drifter data are available in real time along with currents derived from altimetry sea height anomaly fields at:

• http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html
• http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod/work/trinanes/INTERFACE/index.html

An array of 9 drifters (5 minimets and 4 ADOS) was deployed in front of hurricane Ike before it landed in Houston. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Blue dots and black track lines show trajectories of drifters deployed in front of Gustav on August 31, 2008. Data available at:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html (select "hurricane buoys" for "data set")

An array of 12 drifters (6 minimets and 6 ADOS) was deployed in front of hurricane Gustav before it landed in Louisiana. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Data available at:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html (select "hurricane buoys" for "data set")

In conjunction with the US Navy and NOAA, the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) DALLAS is performing various training sessions with West African countries as follow-up to the African Partnership Station (APS), which took place in the Gulf of Guinea in early 2008. As was performed by the HSV-2 SWIFT, the USCGC DALLAS is also deploying drifting buoys in the region as part of climate research and forecasting. In total, the USCGC DALLAS will deploy 10 SVP type drifters, which will help build upon the existing data set in the region.

The US Navy is presently undergoing a two-ship, six month training capacity building exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. AOML, as part of this effort, is providing drifting buoys, training materials and a trainer for this component of the Navy effort. This figure shows tracks of drifters deployed by the HSV 2 Swift. On each track, the star denotes deployment position, the circle shows last transmission position (no circle means, buoy is more than 3 days behind), and the color shows sea surface temperatures in degrees C.

During March 11-14, Mr. Shaun Dolk from the Driter Operations Center will be in Ghana to provide drifter, float and XBT training to regional researchers.

An array of 12 hurricane drifters (4 minimets and 8 ADOS) was deployed in the path of category 4 hurricane Dean approaching the Yucatan Peninsula, from a C-130J "Hurricane Hunter" plane. All drifters survived deployment and successfully transmitted their data on the Global Telecomunication System (GTS). Data available at:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/trinanes/xbt.html select "hurricane buoys" for "data set".

Rick Lumpkin is participating in a CLIMODE cruise, aboard the R/V Knorr (US Navy-owned ship operated by WHOI for ocean research community), deploying 30 drifters (from a total of 60 to de deployed) in the North Atlantic. Three of these drifters are part of the Adopt-a-Drifter Program (ADP), established by NOAA/OCO for teachers K-12 from US and foreign countries to provide them with tools to integrate ocean observing system data into their curriculums.

Craig Engler and Mayra Pazos (NOAA/AOML) attended the twenty-first session of the Data Bouy Cooperation Panel DBCP jointly hosted by the National Meteorological Services and Naval Hydrographical Services in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17-21 October, 2005. Mayra and Craig presented on a comparison study of eight clusters of drifters, each from a different manufacturer, deployed at the same time and location in the Atlantic ocean. Download presentation (pdf).

Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and Captain Jeremy Kingston of the VOS ship MV Explorer deploy a drifter off the coast of South Africa. Archbiship Tutu was participating in the Semester At Sea program aboard the Explorer, which serves as a floating university campus. Every semester, more than 600 students sail aboard the Explorer for a learning experience that circumnavigates the globe. Two classes, one from the Congressional School of Virginia and the one from Elsies River High School in South Africa, adopted the drifter and will be tracking its passage through the South Atlantic.

Deployment of Drifter # 1250 makes the Global Drifter Program the first fully realized component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).