Saildrone Baja field campaign surface and ADCP measurements

The drone is autonomous in that it may be guided remotely from land while being completely wind driven. The saildrone Baja campaign was a 60-day cruise from San Francisco Bay, down along the US/Mexico coast to Guadalupe Island and back again over the period 11 April 2018 to 11 June 2018.

Repeat surveys were taken around NDBC moored buoys, and during the final week of the cruise a targeted front was sampled. Scientific objectives included studies of upwelling and frontal region dynamics, air-sea interactions, and diurnal warming effects, while its validation objectives included establishing the utility of data from the saildrone platform for assessment of satellite data accuracy and model assimilation. During the Baja campaign, the single deployed saildrone was equipped with a suite of instruments that included a CTD, IR pyrometer, fluorometer, dissolved oxygen sensor, anemometer, barometer, and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP).