21 September Research Cruise

We began our salinity feature tracking exercise in shallow water, just south of the entrance to Willapa Bay. We collected water samples and CTD profiles, then steamed south along the 124 7.0 W Longitude line, mapping surface properties and upper layer velocities. We did additional CTD casts north and south of the entrance to the Columbia River. We then tracked plume features through a modified 'radiator' pattern, and did CTD tow-yo series along each of the crossings of the southern portion of the plume. We terminated this feature tracking exercise about midnight so that we could enter the Columbia River estuary for sampling on 22 September.