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. 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, which is a mini-drifter, allows obtaining operational information about the parameters of coastal currents. In the experiments of 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 Black Sea Rim Current approached the coast. The trajectories of mini-drifters 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 was estimated.