About
Clearwater Instrumentation manufactures sophisticated, autonomous, oceanographic instruments, called drifters. Drifters operate unattended while floating on the sea surface and relay environmental information to the user by satellite. Meteorologists and oceanographers in research and observational programs use Clearwater drifters to measure ocean surface current velocities and other environmental data from the sea and the atmosphere, anywhere on the world’s oceans. We also provide data and consulting services to our clients. Our clients include military and governmental agencies, research institutions, and universities in the US and internationally.
In 1989 Dr. Gary Williams started Clearwater Instrumentation, Inc. to provide consulting services and to make specialty instrumentation for researchers in the field of physical oceanography -- the scientific study of ocean currents. Since its inception, Clearwater has worked closely with clients to develop instrumentation. We collaborated with scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, to develop prototype surface drifters for the Surface Velocity Program of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment. Later Clearwater assisted the U.S. Coast Guard R&D Center in the development of the first Self-Locating Datum Marker Buoy.
View Clearwater location tracks in waters around the world here.