2020 Drifter Tracks

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

updated every two hours

See a GoogleMap of just this month's tracks.
See animation of all tracks.
Download drifter construction manuals and lesson plans
Find out how to get involved with the project
Predict where a drifter will go (not maintained in 2020)
To see this month's tracks overlaid on other fields (sst, models, etc), go to the MARACOOS site.
Access the historical drifter data (when server is working).
Read about drifters in the news (no longer maintained)
Get information on a related unmanned sailboat project
Plots of this year's tracks are linked in the table below.
Get raw statistics.
Check on your satellite fix use.
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Drifter tracks from in previous years:
2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019.

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

Eddie Buoy
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)
Educational PassagesBaldwin/Stymiest 2018 Multiple Places20?educationunderwayunmanned sailboats
Educational PassagesStymiest 2019 Multiple Places12+educationunderwayunmanned sailboats Navis_Stellum, MPA_Sewee_Spirit, American Sunset, SV_Jamestown, and more ...
WaterstartFoxPolaris18 June 2019Off Bermuda1educationunderwayCassie surface bamboo drifter196320641 made several loops around Bermuda and ...
Wellan MontessoriLucier?? 19 Nov 2019 Mass Bay2education/turtlesunderwaywooden turtle190420702 made it beyond Grand Banks healthy and upright
Savannah StateHintzR/V Margaret Robinson 19 Nov 2019 South Atlantic Bight1educationunderwayIrina surface drifters190320801 recirculating in North Atlantic in June 2020
; 190320802 died in Feb 2020
;190320803 died 31 Jan 2020
;
Educational PassagesStymiest 2020 Multiple Places8+educationunderwayunmanned sailboats
Southern Maine Community CollegeTarbox/LongCaptain B (Jeff Putnam)24 Feb 2020 Jeffries Ledge1educationunderway2x4 mast 202430702 Off Georges in June 2020 and ...
Oregon State UniversityArnesen??05 March 2020 off Oregon1buoyunderwaymooring 203431241
University of Otago New ZealandSmith? 01 June 2020off New Zealand6cross-frontal exchangeunderwaydrogued drifters206451701 caught in fishing net 27 June and brought ashore (drogue cut free);
20645702 ...;
206451703 ;
206451704 ...;
206451705 ...;
206451706 ...
Well Estuarine ReserveGoldstein/LippmannR/V Endeavor 25 June 2020 Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve/UNH24lobsterunderwaysurface drifters 206430702 decommissioned on 8 Aug 2020;
206430703 came ashore 7/5 and recovered by Christina at the end of Ocean Ave in Swampscott;
206430705 decommissioned on 8 Aug 2020;
206430708 decommissioned on 8 Aug 2020;
2064307010 went dead on Jeffries Ledge on 7/10/2020;
2064307017 went dead in Boston shipping lane 7/9/2020;
2064307019 came ashore 6/28 and recovered near Rye Harbor;
2064307020 came in an out of Newburyport Harbor on 6/30,eventually came ashore at the Gothwait Reservation near Marblehead, and recovered by their harbor master office ;
2064307021 decommissioned on 8 Aug 2020;
2064307022 came ashore 6/30 and recovered under dock in Newburyport ;
2064307023 decommissioned on 8 Aug 2020;
Jacksonville Marine LabStalkerCrowley's M/V El Coqui 25 July 2020 Gulf Stream1Educationunderwaysurface drifter 207200791 with PVC frame deployed in Gulf Stream...

Note: Most units are prepared by marine science students. The majority are standard "surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, but some units, as in the case of EP boats, track the wind and wave at the surface and some have subsurface drogues typically centered at 10m-15m below the surface. For details, call 508-495-4727 or email james.manning@noaa.gov.