The float was launched in a triad ( 87 , 88, 89 ) ~65 km west of Monterey Bay approximately along CalCOFI Line67. The floats were launched in an across-shore row with a distance between their launching points of about 18 km.
The float was entrained in the undercurrent at the time of launching (Figure 2). During the first 150 days of the mission the float left the Undercurrent and entered it again several times. North of Cape Arago the float made an anticyclonic loop and several days later began moving offshore. During its westward drift it was entrapped in an anticyclonic eddy (Figure 4) on December 19, 2001:
Number of loops 6 Diameter, km 47 Duration, days 112 Period, days 19 Swirl velocity, cm/s 9.2 Translation velocity, cm/s 1.3 Direction, degrees 280 Rossby number 0.04
The float moved with the eddy from July 19 till April 10, 2002. On December 8, 2002 the float was again entrained by the undercurrent off Cape Mendocino and moved till Cape Blanco for about 25 days. The rest of the mission the float drifted in the interior and was probably trapped in a cyclonic eddy just prior to surfacing.
The float was balanced for 275 dbar but settled to 338±12 dbar and 333±10 dbar during first 95 and last 250 days of its mission. After the float left the California Undercurrent on August 23, 2001, it gradually sank below 450 dbar and was moving at 468±9 dbar for more than 300 days (Figure 3).