This is what the path of one of the drifters looks like today, approximately 24 hours after deployment. Remember yesterday, the drifter was taking a southerly route. Today, the drifters have turned northwards. Today is not as windy as yesterday.
This is what the other drifter path looks like today. It has also turned north after drifting south the first day. This one may have drifted further south the first day because it was deployed closer to the Salinas Valley, where the onshore winds are strongest. Well, maybe.
Here’s what the winds look like today. You can definitely see that the wind speeds are lower today, especially in the northeast portion of the bay where the drifters were deployed.
We had a bit of a distraction today with the Samoan earthquake and tsunami. The tsunami made it all the way to Monterey by yesterday evening, although its amplitude was only a few centimeters by the time it made it here.
In the image above (click on it for a larger image), you can see that the tsunami entered Monterey Bay at just past 0400 on Day 273, which is Sept 30, 2009. I guess we can say that the drifters survived a tsunami on their maiden voyage.
I just got word from the MBARI guys that the drifters will be recovered tomorrow. We’ll be sending a few more students on the cruise with them.
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