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Ocean Current Mapping with Indigenous Drifting Buoys


Affiliations
1 National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India
 

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.

Keywords

Drifting Buoy, GPS Receiver, Mixed Layer Surface Currents, Mesoscale Eddies.
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  • Ocean Current Mapping with Indigenous Drifting Buoys

Abstract Views: 272  |  PDF Views: 134

Authors

R. Srinivasan
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India
Shijo Zacharia
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India
V. Gowthaman
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India
Tata Sudhakar
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India
M. A. Atmanand
National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai 600 100, India

Abstract


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.

Keywords


Drifting Buoy, GPS Receiver, Mixed Layer Surface Currents, Mesoscale Eddies.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv118%2Fi11%2F1778-1781