Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface

Due to its dire impacts on marine life, public health, and socio-economic services, oil spills require an immediate response. Effective action starts with good knowledge of the ocean dynamics and circulation, from which Lagrangian methods derive key information on the dispersal pathways present in t...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Gina Fifani, Alberto Baudena, Milad Fakhri, Georges Baaklini, Yannice Faugère, Rosemary Morrow, Laurent Mortier, Francesco d’Ovidio
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	satellite altimetry Lagrangian approach contaminant dispersion SAR Lyapunov exponents speed of front drifting Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7b954257985e4488a6a3ad1238aba02d
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:7b954257985e4488a6a3ad1238aba02d
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7b954257985e4488a6a3ad1238aba02d2021-11-25T18:53:41ZDrifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface10.3390/rs132244992072-4292https://doaj.org/article/7b954257985e4488a6a3ad1238aba02d2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/22/4499https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292Due to its dire impacts on marine life, public health, and socio-economic services, oil spills require an immediate response. Effective action starts with good knowledge of the ocean dynamics and circulation, from which Lagrangian methods derive key information on the dispersal pathways present in the contaminated region. However, precise assessments of the capacity of Lagrangian methods in real contamination cases remain rare and limited to large slicks spanning several hundreds of km. Here we address this knowledge gap and consider two medium-scale (tens of km wide) events of oil in contrasting conditions: an offshore case (East China Sea, 2018) and a recent near-coastal one (East Mediterranean, 2021). Our comparison between oil slicks and Lagrangian diagnostics derived from near-real-time velocity fields shows that the calculation of Lagrangian fronts is, in general, more robust to errors in the velocity fields and more informative on the dispersion pathways than the direct advection of a numerical tracer. The inclusion of the effect of wind is also found to be essential, being capable of suddenly breaking Lagrangian transport barriers. Finally, we show that a usually neglected Lagrangian quantity, the Lyapunov vector, can be exploited to predict the front drifting speed, and in turn, its future location over a few days, on the basis of near-real-time information alone. These results may be of special relevance in the context of next-generation altimetry missions that are expected to provide highly resolved and precise near-real-time velocity fields for both open ocean and coastal regions.Gina FifaniAlberto BaudenaMilad FakhriGeorges BaakliniYannice FaugèreRosemary MorrowLaurent MortierFrancesco d’OvidioMDPI AGarticlesatellite altimetryLagrangian approachcontaminant dispersionSARLyapunov exponentsspeed of front driftingScienceQENRemote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 4499, p 4499 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	satellite altimetry Lagrangian approach contaminant dispersion SAR Lyapunov exponents speed of front drifting Science Q
spellingShingle	satellite altimetry Lagrangian approach contaminant dispersion SAR Lyapunov exponents speed of front drifting Science Q Gina Fifani Alberto Baudena Milad Fakhri Georges Baaklini Yannice Faugère Rosemary Morrow Laurent Mortier Francesco d’Ovidio Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
description	Due to its dire impacts on marine life, public health, and socio-economic services, oil spills require an immediate response. Effective action starts with good knowledge of the ocean dynamics and circulation, from which Lagrangian methods derive key information on the dispersal pathways present in the contaminated region. However, precise assessments of the capacity of Lagrangian methods in real contamination cases remain rare and limited to large slicks spanning several hundreds of km. Here we address this knowledge gap and consider two medium-scale (tens of km wide) events of oil in contrasting conditions: an offshore case (East China Sea, 2018) and a recent near-coastal one (East Mediterranean, 2021). Our comparison between oil slicks and Lagrangian diagnostics derived from near-real-time velocity fields shows that the calculation of Lagrangian fronts is, in general, more robust to errors in the velocity fields and more informative on the dispersion pathways than the direct advection of a numerical tracer. The inclusion of the effect of wind is also found to be essential, being capable of suddenly breaking Lagrangian transport barriers. Finally, we show that a usually neglected Lagrangian quantity, the Lyapunov vector, can be exploited to predict the front drifting speed, and in turn, its future location over a few days, on the basis of near-real-time information alone. These results may be of special relevance in the context of next-generation altimetry missions that are expected to provide highly resolved and precise near-real-time velocity fields for both open ocean and coastal regions.
format	article
author	Gina Fifani Alberto Baudena Milad Fakhri Georges Baaklini Yannice Faugère Rosemary Morrow Laurent Mortier Francesco d’Ovidio
author_facet	Gina Fifani Alberto Baudena Milad Fakhri Georges Baaklini Yannice Faugère Rosemary Morrow Laurent Mortier Francesco d’Ovidio
author_sort	Gina Fifani
title	Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
title_short	Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
title_full	Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
title_fullStr	Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
title_full_unstemmed	Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface
title_sort	drifting speed of lagrangian fronts and oil spill dispersal at the ocean surface
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/7b954257985e4488a6a3ad1238aba02d
work_keys_str_mv	AT ginafifani driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT albertobaudena driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT miladfakhri driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT georgesbaaklini driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT yannicefaugere driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT rosemarymorrow driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT laurentmortier driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface AT francescodovidio driftingspeedoflagrangianfrontsandoilspilldispersalattheoceansurface
_version_	1718410597109858304

Drifting Speed of Lagrangian Fronts and Oil Spill Dispersal at the Ocean Surface

Ejemplares similares