{"id":2391,"date":"2014-07-25T15:25:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T19:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2024-05-02T15:17:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T19:17:25","slug":"exploring-rip-currents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/currents\/2014\/07\/exploring-rip-currents\/","title":{"rendered":"Rip Currents: Data and Deployments"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rebecca Nagy<\/h3>\n

You may have noticed that North Carolina Sea Grant’s rip current research is getting media attention<\/a> \u2014 both traditional and social.<\/p>\n

So, what does a\u00a0data-logging drifter do?<\/p>\n

\"Data-logging

Data-logging drifters are used to monitor rip currents. Photo by Kurt Christiansen, courtesy North Carolina Sea Grant.<\/p><\/div>\n

“It records position over time. It also can record velocities, so we don\u2019t have do it manually,” explains Cobi Christiansen, who is gathering and analyzing the GPS and other data for his graduate studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Basically, it can run for about two days worth of data,” he says of the 2GB memory\u00a0card that will outlast the battery life.<\/p>\n

“We can run these things all day long and not have to worry. After the deployment, we go through, download the data, reformat the card, and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drifters are made\u00a0from readily available plumbing materials, along with the small, off-the-shelf GPS units. Gym weights and insulation combine to allow each drifter to \u00a0float like a person would.<\/p>\n

Here’s some footage Christiansen shot in the water.<\/p>\n

Spencer Rogers, our coastal construction and erosion specialist, is leading a team of researchers and volunteers focused on beach safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn North Carolina, the ‘rip current danger’ on most beaches are only about five days a year. Those rip currents flow faster than Michael Phelps can swim,” Rogers told local, state and national media at a deployment this week.<\/p>\n

While rip current research has been done previously elsewhere, Rogers adapted the equipment and process\u00a0to better suit\u00a0North Carolina’s coast.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the research has been done internationally especially Australia and the west coast of the United States and not a lot of research has been done here,” Christiansen told\u00a0Time Warner Cable News.<\/p>\n

Rob Brander \u2014 a coastal geomorphologist \u00a0from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia \u2014 is contributing his expertise \u00a0while visiting the United States to study rip currents.<\/p>\n

\"Two

Simon Sanders and Rob Brander oversee drifter deployment to monitor rip currents. Photo by Rebecca Nagy.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere is this complacency, because they might only kill one or two people at a time,\u201d Brander, also known internationally as Dr. Rip, told The News and Observer<\/em>. \u201cIn Australia, they don\u2019t get much attention, but they kill more people than cyclones, bush fires, floods and sharks combined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brander says he is impressed with the rip current outlooks provided by the National Weather Service. The NWS forecast office in Wilmington<\/a> has been a key partner in project design and deployments. The Newport\/Morehead City office will work with the team during data collection on the Outer Banks.<\/p>\n

Lifeguards provide the important daily experience with rip currents. Simon Sanders, who leads the Carolina Beach Ocean Rescue crew, has been a key partner.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the summer, Rogers and his team will be on-call to respond when lifeguards report, or the NWS offices forecast, strong rip currents.<\/p>\n

North Carolina Sea Grant is headquartered at\u00a0North Carolina State University<\/a><\/em> with offices in Manteo, Morehead City and Wilmington. Learn more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rebecca Nagy, a senior at NC State, has written for <\/em>Coastwatch<\/a> magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Nagy explains how data-logging drifters monitor rip currents \u2014 and shares footage that UNCW graduate student Cobi Christiansen shot while getting these loggers into the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,690,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-safety","category-coastal-hazards","category-currents","category-rip-currents"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRip Currents: Data and Deployments - Coastwatch Currents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/currents\/2014\/07\/exploring-rip-currents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rip Currents: Data and Deployments - 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