ИСТИНА

This work presents the description and results of drifter experiments which were held in coastal zone of the Black Sea every summer and sometimes in autumn since 2013. Surface GSM/GPS drifters were used for observation coastal currents with temporal and spatial resolution of 5–10 minutes and 100–200 m. Some parameters of sub-mesoscale eddies was described due to experiments. An optional battery pack allowed to extent autonomy to 19 days (one of the drifters covered a distance of ~ 300 km).The results of experiments include a comparison of the drifter trajectories with bottom-tracked ADCP and moored ADCP data. The speed and direction of current velocity from the ADCP data coincide with the data from drifters. We demonstrate that using drifter data for analysis of water dynamics gives a more comprehensive pattern of actual processes in comparison to using the ADCP data alone.