Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER) surface drifters, raw, Gulf of Mexico, January - May 2016

Over 1000 near-surface biodegradable drifters were deployed in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January-February 2016 as part of the CARTHE Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER). The drifters were drogued at 0.5 m depth and reported their positions in real-time using SPOT GPS units nominally every 5 minutes for about 3 months. No temperature or salinity sensors were attached to these drifters. This dataset contains the raw data, except that duplicate entries, out-of-range positions, and data before launch have been eliminated. Data covers the period 20 January through 1 May 2016. This dataset was created by the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE). This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.