Remotely Piloted Systems

The Deepwater Horizon event highlighted the need for more economical and ecofriendly methods to accurately track and study ocean currents. Scientists with the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment II (CARTHE II) spent two years testing different structures and materials to develop a practical, cost-efficient, and biodegradable drifter design. They partnered with the media brand Waterlust to create a video describing the researchers’ experience designing, testing, and deploying the new GPS-equipped drifters during the Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER), the largest ocean drifter experiment in history.