Abstract:

Over 1000 near-surface biodegradable drifters were deployed in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January-February 2016 as part of the CARTHE Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER). The drifters were drogued at 0.5 m depth and reported their positions in real-time using SPOT GPS units nominally every 5 minutes for about 3 months. No temperature or salinity sensors were attached to these drifters. The data was quality-controlled by separating trajectories at drogue-loss. Positions were then low-pass filtered and interpolated to uniform 15 minute intervals. Data covers the period 21 January through 30 April 2016. This dataset was created by the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE). This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Suggested Citation:

Eric D'Asaro, Cedric Guigand, Angelique Haza, Helga Huntley, Guillaume Novelli, Tamay Özgökmen, Ed Ryan. 2017. Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER) surface drifters, interpolated to 15-minute intervals. Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7W0940J

Publications:

Miron, P., Beron-Vera, F. J., Olascoaga, M. J., Sheinbaum, J., Pérez-Brunius, P., & Froyland, G. (2017). Lagrangian dynamical geography of the Gulf of Mexico. Scientific Reports, 7(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-07177-w

D’Asaro, E. A., Shcherbina, A. Y., Klymak, J. M., Molemaker, J., Novelli, G., Guigand, C. M., … Özgökmen, T. M. (2018). Ocean convergence and the dispersion of flotsam. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201718453. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718453115

Olascoaga, M. J., Miron, P., Paris, C., Pérez-Brunius, P., Pérez-Portela, R., Smith, R. H., & Vaz, A. (2018). Connectivity of Pulley Ridge with remote locations as inferred from satellite-tracked drifter trajectories. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. doi:10.1029/2018jc014057

Haza, A. C., D’Asaro, E., Chang, H., Chen, S., Curcic, M., Guigand, C., … Shcherbina, A. (2018). Drogue-Loss Detection for Surface Drifters during the Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER). Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 35(4), 705–725. doi:10.1175/jtech-d-17-0143.1

Carlson, D. F., Özgökmen, T., Novelli, G., Guigand, C., Chang, H., Fox-Kemper, B., … Horstmann, J. (2018). Surface Ocean Dispersion Observations From the Ship-Tethered Aerostat Remote Sensing System. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5. doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00479

Gough, M. K., Beron-Vera, F. J., Olascoaga, M. J., Sheinbaum, J., Jouanno, J., & Duran, R. (2019). Persistent Lagrangian Transport Patterns in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49(2), 353–367. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-17-0207.1

Pearson, J., Fox-Kemper, B., Barkan, R., Choi, J., Bracco, A., & McWilliams, J. C. (2019). Impacts of Convergence on Structure Functions from Surface Drifters in the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49(3), 675–690. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-18-0029.1

Gonçalves, R. C., Iskandarani, M., Özgökmen, T., & Thacker, W. C. (2019). Reconstruction of Submesoscale Velocity Field from Surface Drifters. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49(4), 941–958. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-18-0025.1

Chang, H., Huntley, H. S., Kirwan, A. D., Carlson, D. F., Mensa, J. A., Mehta, S., … Poje, A. C. (2019). Small-scale dispersion in the presence of Langmuir circulation. Journal of Physical Oceanography. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-19-0107.1

Lodise, J., Özgökmen, T., Griffa, A., & Berta, M. (2019). Vertical structure of ocean surface currents under high winds from massive arrays of drifters. Ocean Science, 15(6), 1627–1651. doi:10.5194/os-15-1627-2019

Shao, M., Ortiz‐Suslow, D. G., Haus, B. K., Lund, B., Williams, N. J., Özgökmen, T. M., … Klymak, J. M. (2019). The Variability of Winds and Fluxes Observed Near Submesoscale Fronts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124(11), 7756–7780. doi:10.1029/2019jc015236

Novelli, G., Guigand, C. M., Boufadel, M. C., & Özgökmen, T. M. (2020). On the transport and landfall of marine oil spills, laboratory and field observations. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 150, 110805. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110805

Jacobs, G. A., D’Addezio, J. M., Bartels, B., & Spence, P. L. (2019). Constrained scales in ocean forecasting. Advances in Space Research. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2019.09.018

D’Asaro, E. A., Carlson, D. F., Chamecki, M., Harcourt, R. R., Haus, B. K., Fox-Kemper, B., … Yang, D. (2020). Advances in Observing and Understanding Small-Scale Open Ocean Circulation During the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Era. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7. doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00349

Pearson, J., Fox‐Kemper, B., Pearson, B., Chang, H., Haus, B. K., Horstmann, J., … Poje, A. (2020). Biases in Structure Functions from Observations of Submesoscale Flows. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125(6). doi:10.1029/2019jc015769

Sun, D., Bracco, A., Barkan, R., Berta, M., Dauhajre, D., Molemaker, M. J., … McWilliams, J. C. (2020). Diurnal Cycling of Submesoscale Dynamics: Lagrangian Implications in Drifter Observations and Model Simulations of the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 50(6), 1605–1623. doi:10.1175/jpo-d-19-0241.1

Lodise, J., Özgökmen, T., Gonçalves, R. C., Iskandarani, M., Lund, B., Horstmann, J., … Guigand, C. (2020). Investigating the Formation of Submesoscale Structures along Mesoscale Fronts and Estimating Kinematic Quantities Using Lagrangian Drifters. Fluids, 5(3), 159. doi:10.3390/fluids5030159

Haza, A. C., Paldor, N., Özgökmen, T. M., Curcic, M., Chen, S. S., & Jacobs, G. (2019). Wind‐Based Estimations of Ocean Surface Currents From Massive Clusters of Drifters in the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124(8), 5844–5869. doi:10.1029/2018jc014813

Berta, M., Griffa, A., Haza, A. C., Horstmann, J., Huntley, H. S., Ibrahim, R., … Poje, A. C. (2020). Submesoscale Kinematic Properties in Summer and Winter Surface Flows in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125(10). doi:10.1029/2020jc016085

Purpose:

The drifters were released to study submesoscale dispersion at the ocean surface.

Data Parameters and Units:

ID date (YYYY-MM-DD), time (HH:MM:FFF) latitude, longitude (decimal degrees) estimated position error (m) eastward and northward velocities (m/s) estimated velocity error (m/s)

Individual Files: