Ocean Current Mapping with Indigenous Drifting Buoys

Ocean current transports mass and energy around the world and it is the driving force of climate and it regulates local weather. Drifting buoy plays an important role in mapping world’s ocean water circulations and its study. The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), MoES, Chennai has indigenized drifting buoy with the Indian Satellite (INSAT) telemetry and global positioning system receiver to acquire geo-positional updates to precisely calculate ocean’s mixed layer surface current. The drifting buoy acquires hourly positional data (24 data/day) compared to ARGOS drifters which has limited pass in Indian tropical regions. The NIOT deployed drifting buoy in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea during monsoon seasons of 2012–2019 to study the Indian Ocean currents. This article reports about the mixed layer surface currents mapped by the indigenous drifting buoy in the Bay of Bengal.