The use of mini-drifters in coastal current measurements conducted concurrently with satellite imaging.

The results of field measurements of coastal currents using Lagrangian mini-drifters are presented. The drifter experiments were conducted concurrently with satellite imaging using Sentinel-2 MSI, Landsat-8 OLI, and Sentinel-3 OLCI sensors. It is shown that the use of an inexpensive and simple-to-manufacture device such as a mini-drifter allows one to obtain operational information about the parameters of coastal currents. In experiments conducted in April–May 2019 in the northeastern part of the Black Sea, it was possible to estimate the velocity of coastal currents and determine the minimum distance that the Black Sea Rim Current approached the coast. The trajectories of mini-drifters have revealed the manifestations of inertial oscillations whose spatial characteristics are almost impossible to measure in any other way. The influence of the vortex structures detected in visible satellite images on the distribution of mini-drifters is estimated.