Global Hourly Ocean Drifter Data with Temperature and Current Measurements

Hourly sea surface temperature and current velocity data collected by NOAA's Global Drifter Program using satellite-tracked buoys. The Drifter Data Assembly Center at NOAA's AOML applies quality control and processing to provide estimates at regular hourly intervals. Data include positions, temperature components, velocities with uncertainty estimates, and metadata on drifter deployment and status.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean surface currents based on hourly eastward and northward velocity components.
• Analyzing sea surface temperature diurnal variability using the total, diurnal, and non-diurnal temperature components.
• Tracking Lagrangian particle trajectories based on hourly latitude and longitude positions.
• Assessing data quality for drifter observations using the provided uncertainty estimates.
• Studying drifter deployment and performance using metadata like drogue loss date and manufacturer.

Strengths

• Data includes uncertainty estimates for measurements, as mentioned in the description.
• Quality control procedures are applied by NOAA's Drifter Data Assembly Center.
• Provides hourly temporal resolution for studying high-frequency ocean processes.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Global Drifter Program, processed by the Drifter Data Assembly Center (DAC) at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

Collection Method

Observational data from satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, quality-controlled and processed to hourly estimates.

Time Range

The description notes a separate 6-hourly dataset goes back to 1979; temporal coverage for this hourly dataset is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown.

Geography

World-wide, as stated in the citation.