Download IPRC_Symposium_2011

Ocean Surface Currents and Circulation of Marine Debris
Jan Hafner and Nikolai Maximenko, IPRC/SOEST University of Hawaii
IPRC Symposium
th
7
September 2011
SCUD - Surface CUrrents from Diagnostic model
Final Product and data access
Drifter Data
AOML – 8058 drifters
AVISO sea level
QSCAT ocean surface wind
¼ degree surface currents maps: daily from 01Aug1999 till 19Nov2009
(span of QSCAT data)

Switch to ASCAT wind data for daily updates
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SCUD dataset is open for free unrestricted use and distribution
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Drifters' Trajectories
Disseminated by APDRC servers :
http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/projects/SCUD/
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SCUD
LAS, LAS7, OpeNDAP, DChart
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Drifters = marine debris
SCUD manual :
http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/projects/SCUD/SCUD_manual_02_17.pdf
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SCUD users listserver:
http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/projects/SCUD/registration.html
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Ocean surface currents
Starting 01 AUG 1999
ending 18 NOV 2009
SCUD model
Application on Marine
Debris
Where the marine debris
goes?
How it gets there ?
Statistical model
SCUD
Numerical Experiment:
SCUD
currents
applied on ocean tracers released
daily
from coast and weighted by
coastal population
count
Japanese Tsunami
Estimate: 6-10 million tons released.
Where will it all go?
th
11
March 2011
SCUD
678,305 tracers released
then advected by daily SCUD currents
Statistical model
Photos of debris plume off Honshu after March 11, 2011
tsunami
Rate of “Mar 11, 2011” model debris deposition on shore after 10 years
Hawaii
Courtesy of US
Navy
Asia
Alaska
California
years
Conclusions:
•Hawaii is the final destination of marine debris from the North Pacific –
impacted the most
•application of ocean surface current models on marine debris problem
•more direct observations needed
•March 2011 tsunami in Japan – opportunity to gain new knowledge about
marine debris propagation and final destination
Daily updates:
http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/hafner/PUBLIC/TSUNAMI_DEBRIS/tsunami_tracers_no_ve
ctor_large.html