2023 Drifter Tracks

Resolving transport pathways through New England's continental shelf waters and beyond

updated every few hours

See a GoogleMap of just this month's tracks.
Find out how to get involved with the project
Download drifter construction manuals and lesson plans
Access the historical drifter data.
Get information on a related unmanned sailboat project
Plots of this year's tracks are linked in the table below.
Drifter tracks from last year are here.
Drifter tracks from in previous years (email james.patrick.manning@gmail.com):

To get PYTHON processing routines, email James Manning for the latest versions.

 

To see information on individual clusters, click the links in the following chronological table

Institution
(data)
PI (report/blog) Deployers (deploy video) Date Deployed (animation) Dropsite (forecast) #units Science (googleearth) Status (googlemap) ID-Type of Unit (photo) Fate (photo)
Seton Hall Prep High David Snyder F/V Nathaniel Lee Aug 21 2022 Oceanographers Canyon 2 education underway mini surface drifter 228400691,228400692 separated by several hundred miles after a few months
Waterford CT High OConner R/V Neil Armstrong Nov 13, 2022 Southern New England Shelf 1 education underway surface drifter and miniboat 220400721 drifter along with Educational Passages miniboat "Lady Lance" as documented with a weekly blog with the deployment video posted here, apparently died 22 March while the miniboat is still alive.
First Presbyterian Day School Patti Lewis and Harrison Smith F/V Fish Haven Mar 8, 2023 Gulf of Mexico 1 education moon tides underway surface drifter 233280891 made a few loops, headed south, and then, one week after deployment, made it into Chandeleur South, circumnavigated an island, past the delta on 19 March, and, as of the end of the month, was headed westward.
Falmouth MA High Cheryl Milliken USCG Mar 11, 2023 Cape Cod Bay 1 education/potential nuclear waste transport done surface drifter and miniboat 233410701 recovered by Laurie Davis on 14 March with a few bent/broken spars near the White Cliffs Cedarville neighborhood of Plymouth and picked up by JiM;
233410702 miniboat "Scarborough Sailor" went ashore to Plymouth Long Beach the first morning, recovered by a marine debris cleaner missing a few parts, and picked up by Cheryl
Southern Maine Community College Brian Tarbox Captain B Mar 29, 2023 Jeffreys Ledge 1 education underway surface "eddie" drifters  233430701 as seen being tested by students
Career And Academic Development Institute Jeff Frank F/V ??? 2023 Mid-Atlantic Bight 4 education/CODAR planned surface drifter 233380711 ...
233380712 ...
233380713 ...
233380714 ...
Stockton University Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert ?? 2023 off New Jersey 1 education planned surface drifter 233400731...
Meadowbrook Elementary  Jessica MacManus ?? 2023 Cape Cod Bay 2 education planned  surface drifters
Jacksonville Marine Lab J Stalker Crowley cargo ship? 2023 Gulf Stream off FL? ?? education planned surface drifters

Note: Most units are prepared by students in the classroom. The majority are standard "surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, and some have subsurface drogues typically centered at 10m-15m below the surface. For details, call 508-566-4080 or email james.patrick.manning@gmail.com.