Adrift.org.au — A free, quick and easy tool to quantitatively study planktonic surface drift in the global ocean
File(s)VanSebille2014_unformatted.pdf (5.31 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
van Sebille, E
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Almost all organisms in the ocean are impacted by ocean currents. Hence, there is growing interest by marine ecologists in using objective methods to assess current drift and its implications for marine connectivity. Here, an online tool – hosted at adrift.org.au – is introduced that allows for a simple, quantitative assessment of drift patterns and transit time scales on the global scale. The tool is based on a statistical transition matrix representation of the observed trajectories of more than 15 thousand surface drifters. Users can select any point in the ocean and obtain the evolution of the probability density distribution for a tracer released at that point, both forward and backward in time, for a maximum interval of 10 years. It is envisioned that this tool will be used in research and teaching, especially where estimates of drift patterns and transit times are required quickly
Date Issued
2014-09-21
Date Acceptance
2014-09-06
Citation
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2014, 461, pp.317-322
ISSN
0022-0981
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
317
End Page
322
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
Volume
461
Copyright Statement
© 2014, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication Status
Published