Comparing the Currents Measured by CARTHE, CODE and SVP Drifters as a Function of Wind and Wave Conditions in the Southwestern Mediterranean Sea

Instruments drifting at the ocean surface are quasi-Lagrangian, that is, they do not follow exactly the near-surface ocean currents. The currents measured by three commonly-used drifters (CARTHE, CODE and SVP) are compared in a wide range of sea state conditions (winds up to 17 m/s and significant w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-01, Vol.22 (1), p.353
Main Authors: Poulain, Pierre-Marie, Centurioni, Luca, Özgökmen, Tamay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
Acoustics
Comparative analysis
drifters
Marginal seas
near-surface ocean currents
Ocean currents
Ocean surface
Satellites
Sea states
Velocity
Wave height
Wind
Wind speed
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Summary:Instruments drifting at the ocean surface are quasi-Lagrangian, that is, they do not follow exactly the near-surface ocean currents. The currents measured by three commonly-used drifters (CARTHE, CODE and SVP) are compared in a wide range of sea state conditions (winds up to 17 m/s and significant wave height up to 3 m). Nearly collocated and simultaneous drifter measurements in the southwestern Mediterranean reveal that the CARTHE and CODE drifters measure the currents in the first meter below the surface in approximately the same way. When compared to SVP drogued at 15 m nominal depth, the CODE and CARTHE currents are essentially downwind (and down-wave), with a typical speed of 0.5-1% of the wind speed. However, there is a large scatter in velocity differences between CODE/CARTHE and SVP for all wind and sea state conditions encountered, principally due to vertical and horizontal shears not related to the wind. For the CODE drifter with wind speed larger than 10 m/s and significant wave height larger than 1 m, about 30-40% of this difference can be explained by Stokes drift.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s22010353