Modeling of Subsurface Lagrangian Sensor Swarms for Spatially Distributed Current Measurements in High Energy Coastal Environments

Coastal ecosystems are characterized by spatially and temporally varying hydrodynamics. In marine renewable energy applications, these variations strongly influence project economics and in oceanographic studies, they impact accuracy of biological transport and pollutant dispersion models. While stationary point or profile measurements are relatively straight forward, spatial representativeness of point measurements can be poor due to strong gradients. Moving platforms, such as AUVs or surface vessels, offer better coverage, but suffer from energetic constraints (AUVs) and resolvable scales (vessels). A system of sub-surface, drifting sensor packages is being developed to provide spatially distributed, synoptic data sets of coastal hydrodynamics with meter-scale resolution over a regional extent of a kilometer. Computational investigation has informed system parameters such as drifter size and shape, necessary position accuracy, number of drifters, and deployment methods. A hydrodynamic domain with complex flow features was created using a computational fluid dynamics code. A simple model of drifter dynamics propagate the drifters through the domain in post-processing. System parameters are evaluated relative to their ability to accurately recreate domain hydrodynamics. Implications of these results for an inexpensive, depth-controlled Lagrangian drifter system is presented.