About This Project

A drifter floats on the surface to gather ocean data. This project empowers citizen scientists to build and deploy drifters to investigate ocean currents and measure sea-surface temperature, salinity, barometric pressure and wave circulation. This funding enables in-situ data collection to understand ocean dynamics in the surf zone where data is limited data. Citizens depend on the ocean for livelihoods and this project will provide insights to them.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

A drifter is a free-flowing device that is used to measure surface ocean currents. Drifters would be assembled by scientists & coastal communities using a compact receiver unit which will be drogued. The drifter would provide lagrangian data from the ocean current systems. Minor coastal studies contribute to oceanography data as lagrangian data is often not measured in the surface zone as shown here. The design of drifters will be similar to the drifter in the research paper here.

This study will determine the relationship between wave-averaged drifter velocity & depth-averaged current. Data from these studies will enhance ocean literacy for coastal communities and give them access to scientific knowledge & skills.

What is the significance of this project?

Drifters provide data that contributes to weather modelling evidenced here. The data from drifters can be used in weather forecasting and it would assist in providing information for coastal communities thereby keeping them informed and safe from unpleasant weather conditions. The data gathered from this project will enable early warning systems to detect and mitigate climate change.

This project would be a citizen science project in which communities in South Africa would be for the first time involved in the development and deployment of low-cost drifters which would enable them to understand ocean observations and the need to conserve our precious resource, the ocean.

What are the goals of the project?

The objective of the research project is to use transdisciplinary approach to research in which communities that do not have access to scientific knowledge are given an opportunity to be involved in the design and implementation of the research. Five drifters will be deployed and contribute to the high quality spatio-temporal resolution observations around South Africa. The sensors will collect data every 30 minutes and this data will be transmitted in real time through satellite communication. The drifter would collect data for approximately one to three years. The raw data from each of the sensors will be converted into different formats that can be used. Data will be quality controlled and analysed using numerous statistical techniques and visualisations will empower communities.