Evaluation of Environmental Data for Search and Rescue II

The Mid Atlantic Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS) conducted a validation experiment of its High Frequency radar network from May 10 to July 12, 2016. The goal of the experiment was to evaluate its two surface current products, test quality control software and algorithms and evaluate new bistatic data streams. The experiment was conducted in collaboration with the United States Coast Guard Office of Search and Rescue and RPS an environmental consulting company. The Coast Guard provided 9 drifters that were deployed in the coverage area of the radar network. Six were deployed south of Martha's Vineyard and 3 were deployed off New Jersey, which focused on the validation of the 13 MHz network. The position data from the drifters was used to generate surface drift velocity estimates. These velocity estimates were compared against the radial velocity measurements of the radars. The actual path of the drifters over 48 hours was compared against virtual paths generated using the radar currents and other surface current estimates. The Lagrangian skill score was computed for several different surface current products. The regional surface current product from MARACOOS proved to be the best at predicting the path of the drifters.