If the monthly field efficiency was plotted over time for
a given location and a given orientation, an oscillation of
the Array efficiency would be visible for every two months
(see Figure 2.35). Since the simulation starts with most
plastic distributed near the coasts, only very low amounts
of plastic can be caught in the first 26 simulation months.
After this “start-up” period, the field efficiencies for all
Array lengths increase and periodically oscillate with a
further decay of average monthly field efficiency. Note
that the field efficiencies of the Arrays do not differ proportionally
to their lengths partly due to the cell nature of
the model used.