2022 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 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)
Wellan Montessori Annie Radigan Jeff White Nov 11, 2021 off NH 1 education done wooden turtle drifter 210430702 came ashore the next day on York Beach
Wellan Montessori Annie Radigan F/V Miss Julie Feb 9, 2022 Georges Bank 1 education done wooden turtle drifter 222400681 south of the Azores in Nov 2022 and died approaching Portugal mainland
Jacksonville Marine Lab J Stalker Crowley Cargo Ship Mar 28, 2022 Gulf Stream off FL 2 education done surface drifters 222280792 short lived
Rye Learning Skills Academy Dave Bellantone F/V Vivenne May Capt Jeff Donnell Mar 16, 2022 off Southern Maine 1 education done surface drifter 223430701 deployed off Boon Island Maine and dies near Grand Banks
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
Great Lake Environmental Research Lab Steve Ruberg ?? Oct 7 2022 Lake Michgan 1 red tide done 2by4 surface drifter 220860441 came ashore late November near Point Betsie, Michigan
Jacksonville Marine Lab J Stalker Crowley cargo ship Nov 2, 2022 St John River Plume 4 education done surface drifters 220280791-6 - classic river plume flow to the south and on the beach within a few days with story in the news
Waterford CT High OConner R/V Neil Armstrong Nov 13, 2022 Southern New England Shelf 1 education underway surface drifter and miniboat 220400721 - along with Educational Passages miniboat "Lady Lance" as documented with a weekly blog with the deployment video posted here.
Falmouth MA High Cheryl Milliken F/V Resolve Dec 2, 2022 Cape Cod Bay 4 education/potential nuclear waste transport done surface drifters and miniboats 220410701 in the water along with its partner headed generally north for a few days until 7 Dec when it headed back south, oscillated back and forth across the bay for weeks until it came ashore on Corn Hill Beach in Truro on Dec 26, 2022 where it was recovered by Bob Prescott and staff at Wellfleet Audubon a bit mangled and broken spars but still all there with four sails;
220410702 died after a few days, possibly the result of a faulty PVC mast extension and/or fiberglass spars, was found in the Sandwich marsh June 2023 by Jack Marshall, a kayaker on vacation from NY at Scusset Beach Campground, and recovered by ??? from the campground on ??? June 2023;
220410705 miniboat "Riptide_7" deployed by USCG on Dec 21, landed in Scituate the next evening, and recovered by staff at NOAA's Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary;
220410706 miniboat "Rockstar_2" deployed by USCG on Dec 21, landed in Scituate the next evening, and recovered by staff at NOAA's Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary;

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.