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S-MODE Saildrone in San Francisco Waters

Oct. 11, 2022
Saildrones like the one seen here are part of the fleet of autonomous marine research vessels measuring factors such as ocean currents, salinity, and chlorophyll content as part of NASA's S-MODE field campaign.

As part of NASA's Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) field campaign, several Saildrones like the one pictured here were launched from San Francisco Bay. The Saildrones were part of a fleet of autonomous marine research vessels designed to measure a vast array of factors such as ocean currents, wind speed and direction, air and water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll content.

S-MODE is a NASA Earth mission to use newly developed in-situ and remote-sensing techniques to look at small-scale ocean whirlpools, eddies, and currents. The observations could help scientists better understand how these dynamics drive the give-and-take of material and energy between the ocean and atmosphere and, ultimately, help shape Earth's climate.

More information about S-MODE is at https://espo.nasa.gov/s-mode/content/S-MODE

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