The jaw - dropping animation visualizes the flow of surface ocean currents around the world. (newatlas.com)
For at least two decades oceanographers have deployed thousands of Lagrangian drifting buoys, which are designed to map surface ocean currents rather than wind patterns or waves. (newscientist.com)
A typical oceanographic mooring, like one deployed in the northwest Atlantic Ocean by the Global Ocean Ecoystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) program, holds a large array of instrumentation: seven current meters, seven temperature gauges, three optical turbidity scanners, four salinity / conductivity / pressure meters, and one Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) that records surface ocean current patterns around the mooring. (waterencyclopedia.com)