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Listen to Podcast on Drifters

By on February 19, 2010 in Southern Maine Community College, Student Success Stories

Except from Podcast: Kara La Lomia is part of a team at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) that’s designing, constructing and using drifters. These floating instruments track the currents, and are engaging everyone from students to lobstermen.  To listen go to http://coseenow.net/podcast/2010/02/drifter/

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Now *That* got my Students' Attention

By on November 18, 2009 in Cape Fear Community College, Monterey Peninsula College, Student Success Stories, Tracking the Drifter

To begin my lecture on gyres and surface currents this morning, I showed them this image.

This data, collected by our colleagues at Cape Fear Community College, definitely got their attention. This is especially noteworthy because we’re getting towards the end of the semester where students are dealing with all kinds of assignments and are just trying to survive. A lecture about gyres and the differences between strong and swift western boundary currents and weak and meandering eastern boundary currents that is usually met with bored indifference was suddenly incredibly relevant.

That track was made in two months folks! Heck, I had no idea the Gulf Stream was *that* fast.

Here’s the same data with current SST data behind it.

Does anybody know where I can get a kml file showing higher resolution SST data for the North Atlantic that would show all of the eddies in more detail?

I did find this kml file, but it is from 2005 and the location of the eddies is quite different.

Thanks!

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