Trajectories of drifters of different shapes released at four locations across the Atlantic Ocean

This data set contains trajectories of drifters of various shapes deployed at four locations across the Atlantic Ocean during the PIRATA (Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic) Northeast Extension (https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/pne/index.php) cruise in 2018. The drifters were released to study how marine debris and Sargassum move under different ocean and wind conditions and assess inertial effects on their drift. These drifters were specially designed at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Five types of special drifters were built. The four debris-like drifters were comprised of a main body, made of polystyrene foam, and a short-weighted tube at the bottom. Two kinds of main bodies were considered: spherical (of two sizes) and cuboidal (a cube and a square cuboid). The fifth special drifter type consisted of an artificial boxwood hedge designed to mimic a small patch of pelagic Sargassum. This data is associated with the article "How local winds and currents impact the trajectories of marine debris and Sargassum: Inertia-dependent clustering of floating material paths" published in _Geophysical Research Letters_ (forthcoming).