Ocean Surface State Monitoring with Drifters Array

Abstract

Measurement of the parameters of the upper layer of the ocean is one of the tasks of oceanology, on the solution of which the progress of a number of areas of ocean research depends on. So, the data of field measurements are used for verifying and calibrating the processing algorithms of remote meters, oceanographic models, in various research problems and in synoptic/climatic monitoring of the ocean. A continuous increasing in the volume of remote sensing data, an increasing in the complexity of their processing algorithms, and improvement of ocean modeling methods form new requirements for the quality and quantity of experimental measurements. In this paper a small-sized drifter is considered. It is equipped with the necessary measuring channels and software, as an element of the system for measuring the spatiotemporal characteristics of the surface layer of the ocean, namely, the stream vector and the angular spectrum of sea waves. Its structural scheme, the general view, the description of the mechanical part, as well as the scheme for performing the experimental work, all of them are presented in the paper.