Application of collected data
Presentations at the DBCP Technical Workshop
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 17-18 October 2005

Theme 2: Operational enhancements and practices

7. Pacific Gyre Minimet Drifter

Author: Andrew Lowy Sybrandy (Pacific Gyre Inc)

Abstract: Pacific Gyre built the 20 drifting buoys purchased by Peter Niiler of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and deployed by the NOAA Hurricane Research Division into Hurricane Rita in September 2005. Twelve of these drifters were Pacific Gyre Digital Minimet platforms, and 8 were Temperature Chain drifters with Pacific Gyre Digital Minimet electronics installed. Much of the work was done in cooperation with Peter Niiler and Bill Scuba of the SIO, Etienne Charpentier of the DBCP, and Mayra Pazos of AOML/NOAA. The drifter construction, packaging, and data formats were modified, were tested at sea off the coast of California, shipped to Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, survived their first hurricane in storage, shipped to Atlanta Georgia and deployed into Hurricane Rita. All 20 drifters survived air deployment from a C-130 aircraft and collected data throughout the hurricane, and transmitted that data into the GTS.