2023 Drifter Tracks
Resolving transport pathways through New England's continental shelf waters and beyond
updated every few hoursSee 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.
