Krauß, Wolfgang, Dengg, Joachim and Hinrichsen, Hans-Harald (1989) The response of drifting buoys to currents and wind. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 94 (C3). pp. 3201-3210. DOI 10.1029/JC094iC03p03201.

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Abstract

Two buoy types have been tested with respect to their drift performance under drogued and undrogued conditions. Additionally, forces acting on the buoys were measured directly. Quadratic drag laws have been confirmed for the drag in water and the combined drag of wind and waves. Stokes drift contributes about one half to the wind factor of 0.023, which is obtained for undrogued buoys in the Atlantic. The forces on a windowshade drogue are given by a linear relation between force and water velocity for speeds exceeding 10 cm/s. They have been extrapolated to speeds of less than 10 cm/s by both a linear and a quadratic relationship. Correlations between drift and wind speed in the Atlantic suggest that the linear law is a better approximation under realistic conditions. According to these measurements in the Atlantic the described buoy-drogue system with a windowshade drogue in 100-m depth is a good current-measuring device. Slippage is negligible for wind speeds of less than 15 m/s and is less than 2 cm/s under gale conditions. Undrogued buoys are strongly affected by wind and cannot be used for the analysis of currents without correction, even under light winds.

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