Although tides play the largest role in driving the surface currents in Cook Inlet, they are not the only influence. In the five maps below, we have sampled the data over the course of a full tidal cycle during each month. Each vector on every hourly map has been averaged together to cancel out the flood and ebb tides, resulting in the following composite maps. These averaged maps provide a rough idea what the overall circulation looked like during the winter of 2006/2007.

On the maps, the HF radar sites are represented by the red stars. Wind data is shown, where available, as average vectors in black at three possible stations: Augustine Island, Flat Island off of Nanwalek, and Homer Airport. Click the maps below or their titles to see a full-size version.

November 2006

This two-week averaged map suffers from shrunken spatial coverage as the data was taken before our system had been fully optimized.

December 2006

This averaged map incorporates four weeks during the month of December.

January 2007

This averaged map incorporates four weeks during the month of January.

February 2007

This averaged map incorporates four weeks during the month of February. This is the first full month to incorporate the data taken after the Nanwalek site was fully optimized, resulting in the extended range on the west side of the Inlet.

March 2007

This averaged map incorporates four weeks during the month of March.

CIBS-MAP is a collaborative project between the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea-Air-Land-Modeling and Observing Network (SALMON) Project and CODAR Ocean Sensors. It is sponsored by the Minerals Management Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. Boat support was provided by Alaska Clean Seas.