| Figure 4A. Suisun Bay drifter paths during a neap-ebb tide. Drifters were placed at four locations in Grizzly Bay, two near the back and two near the channel/shoal interface. Drifters whose starting positions were near the back of the bay did not exit the bay during the ebb tide. This suggests relatively long residence times (days rather than hours) for this part of the bay during neap tides. The shoal/channel interface drifters nearly reached Carquinez Strait in the same time. Given that these drifter paths represent neap conditions, one expects that during a strong spring tide the drifters deployed near the back of Grizzly Bay would exit the Bay and the drifters deployed at the shoal/channel interface will travel well into Carquinez Strait. |
Figure 4B. Suisun Bay drifter paths during a spring-flood tide. Three groups of drifters were concurrently released 100 yards apart in the reserve fleet channel. Each group of drifters shows a distinctly different flow path where the initial separation of 100 yards is extended to 5,280 yards (3 miles) over 1/2 tidal cycle. The divergence of the flow paths highlights the dispersive character of tidally dominated flows.
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
