Tracer trajectories from the western shelf of South Georgia: ship displacement data

Corrected ships heading data were used to calculate drift data for the shelf area to the west of South Georgia. The data were collected over a six-week period during 1986. A distance weighted interpolation was used to obtain tracer trajectories in this irregular data grid. The vector field is complex with no simple flow field. These data include a lot of complex process interactions. Particles getting onto the shelf become retained with little escape after a run of 100 days. Some of the trajectories are extremely complex. Particles to the north of the shelf can get up onto the shelf. Only those particles released very close to the shelf break in the south move up onto the shelf. Further south particles move to the west along the shelf.