EAR 203
Name: ____________________________
Date: _________________________
Block: _____
EAR 203 EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
LAB 5C - OCEANIC CIRCULATION
PURPOSE
This lab is designed to introduce the student to methods used by scientists to collect data on ocean circulation patterns, and
then explore the connection between surface currents and atmospheric circulation.
PART 1 - SURFACE OCEAN CURRENTS
Map of surface ocean currents from NASA website http://oceanmotion.org
Similar to the shipping container full of sneakers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) deploys buoys
that drift around in the surface ocean as part of the Global Drifter Program. The big difference is that these buoys transmit their
locations and other data to satellites 4 times daily. The buoy has a sea anchor or drogue, which is basically a tube with holes
that “anchors” it in the sea surface currents (see Figure 1). The center of the drogue is about 15 meters below the surface.
Besides position, the buoys can also measure sea surface temperature (SST) and, in some cases, barometric pressure. Data
collected from these types of sensors are important for understand the details of surface circulation and also, over time, provide
a sampling of conditions for nearly every part of the world oceans.
NOAA has created a slick way to view the location of the thousands of buoys that are currently sending data back to satellites.
Click on the following link: the Global Drifter Program ( http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/index.php ). Find the link to
Animations, and click on the links under Evolution of the Global Drifter Array. This section shows the changes in the arrays from
1979 to 2009.
Next, Find the link to the Google earth file globpop.kmz, and click on “download Google Earth File”. Click on open. Google
earth will open, and you will have added a folder labeled NOAA/Global Drifter Program to the Temporary Places directory under
Places on the left-hand side of the screen and there will be hundreds of red and blue dots that appear all over the world ocean.
Lab 5C – Oceanic Circulation
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EAR 203
Figure 1. Illustration of a drogue
Take a moment to cruise around the globe and check out how the buoys are distributed. If you click on one of the dots a
window opens that gives the date of the current position, the deployment date and position. Some only have basic info, and
others actually have links that show a plot of the SST for each position and for the position by date.
Your mission is to find eight different buoys and report the buoy number, the starting position of the buoy, the present position
of the buoy, the number of days deployed, approximately how far it traveled, the average velocity, and which current it is
tracking. The current positions and starting positions should be plotted on a map of the world. Use the measure tool in Google
to make a rough estimate of the distance traveled. Do not estimate the distance until you have made a choice about which
currents are carrying the buoy!
In the end you need to have the starting and ending positions for the buoys, their idealized transport path along whichever
current(s) it has traveled, and the name of the current. Use the attached chart to plot the drifter path.
Lab 5C – Oceanic Circulation
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EAR 203
Name: ________________________
Date: _________________________
Block: _____
BUOY
NUMBER
STARTING
POSITION
PRESENT
POSITION
NUMBER
OF DAYS
DEPLOYED
DISTANCE
TRAVELED
VELOCITY
OCEAN CURRENT
EAR 203 EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
LAB 5C – OCEAN CIRCULAITON
Lab 5C – Oceanic Circulation
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EAR 203
Lab 5C – Oceanic Circulation
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