Home | Meeting Announcement | Meeting Agenda | Call for Papers | Meeting Registration | Hotel Information | Travel Information | Attendees | Abstracts
2002 LAPCOD Meeting
Previous Abstract | Back to Abstracts Page | Next Abstract
Preliminary Results of the DOLCEVITA Drifter Program in the Northern Adriatic
Laura Ursella, Elena Mauri and Pierre-Marie Poulain
Ist. Naz. di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS, Trieste, Italy
lursella@ogs.trieste.it(Abstract received 10/23/2002 for session A)
ABSTRACT
As part of the ONR-sponsored DOLCEVITA program 32 CODE surface drifters were deployed in the Northern Adriatic from NRV Alliance between 21 September and 3 October 2002. These deployments represent the beginning of the monitoring of the surface circulation and sea surface temperature in the Northern Adriatic using more than 120 drifters and extending until the end of 2003. The main scientific objective of the DOLCEVITA program is to quantify the kinematic and dynamic properties of the mesoscale circulation in the Northern Adriatic and study the effects of forcing by winds and river run-offs. Two versions of the CODE drifters were used, the standard type with Argos telemetry and positioning (12 units) and the same drifter fitted with a GPS receiver (20 units). Position sampling with the GPS was programmed at 0.5 hour or hourly intervals. The majority of the drifters were deployed in triplets for which the nearest distance between the drifters was less than 10 km. The deployment locations were selected using the results of statistical simulations in which the goal was to maximize the coverage throughout the basin with the constraint that deployments had to be along specific survey transects. Some locations were changed prior to the releases in order to sample more efficiently interesting mesoscale features seen in satellite images and hydrographic data. The statistical model used to simulate drifter trajectories and to optimize the drifter release strategy was a random flight model based on the statistics (mean circulation, eddy variability and Lagrangian time scale) computed with all historical drifter data in the Northern Adriatic (spanning 1990-1999). Graphical summaries of the data (total drifter population vs time, drifter tracks, etc.) and preliminary surface circulation maps (mean and variability) are presented and discussed. Drifter tramectory segments are overlaid on selected satellite images (sea surface temperature and surface chlorophyll concentration) to illustrate the spatial structures and their evolution.
Previous Abstract | Back to Abstracts Page | Next Abstract
2002 LAPCOD Meeting, Key Largo, Florida, December 12-16, 2000