title: Advances in the Application of Surface Drifters.
abstract: Surface drifting buoys, or drifters, are used in oceanographic and climate research, oil spill tracking, weather forecasting, search and rescue operations, calibration and validation of velocities from high-frequency radar and from altimeters, iceberg tracking, and support of offshore drilling operations. In this review, we present a brief history of drifters, from the message in a bottle to the latest satellite-tracked, multisensor drifters. We discuss the different types of drifters currently used for research and operations as well as drifter designs in development. We conclude with a discussion of the various properties that can be observed with drifters, with heavy emphasis on a critical process that cannot adequately be observed by any other instrument: dispersion in the upper ocean, driven by turbulence at scales from waves through the submesoscale to the large-scale geostrophic eddies.
authors: Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Miami, Florida 33149; email: rick.lumpkin@noaa.gov.
authors: Rick
authors: R
authors: Lumpkin
authors: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33149; email: tozgokmen@rsmas.miami.edu.
authors: Tamay
authors: T
authors: Özgökmen
authors: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: lcenturioni@ucsd.edu.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Centurioni
mesh_terms: D009791:Oceanography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011825:Radar
keywords: Lagrangian observations; dispersion; drifters; surface currents; transport