2.1.3 Drifters
To validate particle model parameterizations and particle displacement in the Lagrangian experiments, we used the Global Drifter Program (GDP) data (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory , 2019). The GDP is a branch of NOAA’s Global Ocean Observing System and a scientific project of the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (Data Buoy Cooperation Panel , 1885). The GDP maintains a global 5° x 5° gridded array of ~1,300 satellite-tracked surface drifters to meet the need for an accurate and globally dense set of in situobservations of mixed layer currents, sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, winds, waves, and salinity (Lumpkin & Pazos, 2009). Elipot et al. (2016) describe the interpolation methods for drifter trajectories. We used surface drifter trajectory data from 2017 and 2018 with an hourly resolution.