Howdy Glider Pickup Reachability Map
Forecast for 18 Jun 1300Z to 28 Jun 1300Z 2025, Issued 18 Jun 2025

Special Product Issued for Sakib Mahmud, Steve DiMarco, and colleagues (Texas A&M)

In the first panel, the black contours shown are reachability front forecasts, at 24 hour intervals (with increasing line thickness for later times). The reachability front is the boundary of the largest set (the reachable set) that the glider can reach within that duration. It is computed by numerically solving our exact governing PDE for this time-optimal reachability front. The time-optimal path from the starting postion to the desired recovery position is shown by the purple curve.

In the second panel we show a zoom of the optimal path along with the reachability fronts and heading/velocity data along the optimal path. The red vectors are the optimal vehicle headings; the blue vectors, the current; and the green vectors, the resultant (sum of the current vector and propulsion vector in the heading direction).

In the third panel, the optimal heading angle (degrees, measured clockwise from true north) vs. time is shown.

Note that time is plotted on the y-axis (so the starting time is on the bottom).

In this forecast, we consider the most recent positions as the starting locations. The final target point for the time-optimal path forecast is just south of Key West.

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GliderSpeed (cm/s)Level Sets and Time-Optimal PathTime-Optimal Path with Headings and CurrentOptimal Headings vs. Time
Rectangular
Howdy20 unit_308_vel20_path.png
unit_308_vel20_path_with_current.png
unit_308_vel20_headings.png
Howdy30 unit_308_vel30_path.png
unit_308_vel30_path_with_current.png
unit_308_vel30_headings.png
Howdy40 unit_308_vel40_path.png
unit_308_vel40_path_with_current.png
unit_308_vel40_headings.png