Marine Oil Pollution Prediction

The ability to monitor and predict marine oil spills depends on access to high-quality information on ocean circulation. Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) systems provide data, with global coverage, for currents, temperature, and salinity in the open ocean, and are now being used in oil spill fate forecasting systems. This paper provides examples of how GODAE ocean forcing data are implemented in various oil spill modeling systems, including both through direct application and through nesting of local hydrodynamic models. Benefits of using GODAE data sets for oil spill modeling are improved prediction accuracy, global coverage, and the provision of alternative predictions for a given area.