VHF radar measurements of flow patterns in bays and estuaries

In late April through early May 1994, the University of Miami Ocean Surface Current Radar (OSCR) system was deployed to measure currents over a portion of Biscayne Bay, FL. The purpose of this exploratory deployment of the OSCR system was to evaluate its capability to map currents in an environment having low amplitude Bragg resonant waves and containing numerous shoals and small islands. The results indicate that, with the exception of very shallow shoal regions, high quality vector current maps can be obtained. The validity of these maps is demonstrated by comparisons with known tidal flows in Biscayne Bay.