float that contains the electronics, a small 

 subsurface float, and a holey-sock drogue. It 

 is known as the World Ocean Circulation Ex- 

 periment/Tropical Ocean and Global Atmo- 

 sphere (WOCEATOGA) Lagrangian drifter. It 

 costs approximately $2500. 



In 1990, Ice Patrol began to evaluate 

 the WOCE buoys, and, in 1 993, started using 

 them in its operations. The only difference 

 between the buoy described in Sybrandy and 

 Niiler (1 991 ) and Ice Patrol's isthatthe drogues 

 on MP's buoys are centered at 50 m. The 

 original WOCE drifter, which is intended to be 

 a mixed-layer drifter, has its drogue centered 

 at 15 m. 



The most important step in making the 

 WOCE buoys usable by Ice Patrol was to 

 develop a reliable air-deployment system. This 

 appendix summarizes the development of HP's 

 WOCE drifter air-deployment package. It also 

 provides a brief summary of MP's WOCE drifter 

 experience with the new drifters during late 

 1 992 and 1 993, the first season of operational 

 use. 



Airborne Delivery System For The WOCE 

 Buoy 



In most cases, WOCE drifters are 

 launched from ships. They are usually pack- 

 aged in cardboard boxes held together by 

 water soluble tape. Inside the box, the buoy, 

 tether and drogue are arranged so that the 

 buoy self-deploys (without being fouled) after 

 the cardboard box comes apart. The buoy and 

 its box are designed to be dropped from a 

 maximum height of 10 meters. This arrange- 

 ment was used to deploy many of the drifters 

 launched by ships of opportunity during the 

 WOCEATOGA study of the circulation of the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



Clearwater Instrumentation, Inc. of 

 Massachusetts developed a WOCEATOGA 

 buoy air-deployment package in 1 990. It was 

 designed to be launched from relatively slow 



aircraft ( < 1 00 knots). It simply consisted of an 

 arrangement of nylon straps around the card- 

 board box and a small parachute, whose riser 

 was cut free using a parachute cutter with a 

 timer. This air-deployment package was used 

 successfully several times. 



In 1991, the US Navy developed a 

 WOCE/TOGA buoy air-deployment package 

 designed to be launched from an HC-1 30 at a 

 speed of approximately 130 knots. In this 

 package, the buoy was placed inside a trl- 

 walled cardboard shipping container, which 

 was attached to a wooden pallet using steel 

 bands. The bottom of the pallet was covered 

 with plywood to facilitate moving along the 

 rollers on the cargo ramp of HC-1 30s. The 

 entire package was then secured with a nylon 

 parachute harness assembly. A detailed de- 

 scription of this air-deployment package is 

 contained in Annex 3 of the Report of the Fifth 

 Meeting of the WOCE/TOGA Surface Velocity 

 Programme Planning Committee. 



Although both of the previously de- 

 scribed packages were used several times, 

 there were no reported cases in which the 

 escape of the buoy from the air-deployment 

 package was observed from a surface vessel. 

 This is an important issue, because HP's expe- 

 rience in air-deploying larger buoys has shown 

 that, even with relatively simple arrangements 

 of straps, there is always a risk that a strap will 

 tangle with and foul the tether. Therefore, IIP 

 decided to develop and test its own air-deploy- 

 ment package. 



The basic design criteria were: 



(1) The package must be simple and 

 robust enough to allow for a safe and effective 

 air-deployment at speeds of 130-140 knots. 

 (For example, the container must be heavy 

 enough to depart the aircraft without hitting the 

 tail.) 



(2) The container must be sturdy 

 enough to protect the buoy during the rigors of 

 shipping and airdrop. 



(3) The package must easily and reli- 



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