Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

Permanent Secretariat

SHORT COMPARISON OIL SPILL DRIFT FORECASTING SYSTEMS

Prepared by Alexander Kubryakov and Gennady Korataev for the Permanent Secretariat of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution within the framework of the MONINFO Project

July 2011 ISTANBUL, Turkey

This report entitled SHORT COMPARISON OIL SPILL DRIFT FORECASTING SYSTEMS, was prepared by experts from the Ukrainian Marine Hydrophysical Institute with the contribution of the staff of the the MONINFO project (Environmental Monitoring of the Black Sea Basin: Monitoring and Information Systems for Reducing Oil Pollution), funded by the European Commission and granted to the Black Sea Commission.upon the request of its Permanent Secretariat. Data presented herein, interpretations, statements, conclusions or any other representations do not represent the view, or is in any other way binding to the European Commission.

SHORT COMPARISON OIL SPILL DRIFT FORECASTING SYSTEMS

Contents I. II. a) b) c) d) III. Introduction. Comparison of the main components. Oil model. Visual input/output interface. Forcing control data of the atmosphere and ocean circulation models. Additional tools. Conclusion.

I.

Introduction

The discharge of oil to sea from oil platforms, oil pipelines and ships causes significant damage to the coastal region of the riparian countries and to the marine environment. The impact of oil pollution on ecology of coastal and marine ecosystems is particular destructive caused by oil spills over maritime accidents. Monitoring of illegal spills and using appropriate backtracking calculations is enable fast and efficient response by authorities to identify the polluter and support prosecution. In the case of emergency spill, response teams have to be supported with the best available oil location, drift and weathering information. Forecast of beaching is enable prioritization of efforts to collect oil at sea. Therefore using of state-of-theart oil spill forecasting systems is very necessary. At present time a number of oil spill forecasting systems exist. They vary in complexity, applicability to location and ease of use. Here we compare some of them. The authors do not claim to be complete comparison of all models, but only some of them which are capable of being used for the needs of the Black Sea community.

Currently, the most advanced and used oil spill drift forecasting systems are: SeaTrackWeb (STW http://seatrack.smhi.se/seatrack/) - the operational oil spill

1.

model, developed by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in cooperation with the Danish Maritime Safety Administration, Bundesamt fur Seeshifffart und Hafen and the Finnish Environment Institute for the oil spill forecasting in the Baltic Sea region. 2. MedSlick (http://www.oceanography.ucy.ac.cy/cycofos/medslik-act.html)- the oil spill

model designed to predict the transport, fate and weathering of an oil spill in the Mediterranean, developed by the Cyprus MFS group. 3. General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME-

http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/software/gnome/gnome.html) - the oil spill trajectory model developed by the Hazardous Materials Response Division (HAZMAT) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Response and Restoration (NOAA OR&R). 4. Model Oceanique de Transport dHydrocarbures (MOTHYhttp://www.meteorologie.eu.org/mothy/references/) pollutant drift model, developed by Meteo-France.

Typically, each system consists of the following parts: 1) 2) 3) actually oil model; a visual interface for input data and for viewing the output; a run module that performs the simulation.

II.

Comparison of the main components

a)

Oil model

All mentioned above oil drift models are based on a Lagrangian particle spreading model. This means that the substance or object being simulated is represented as a cloud of particles. A fundamental assumption is that the particles do not influence the flow field, i.e. a particle does not have any effect on the flow in which it is located and particles are assumed not to interact directly with each other.

Each particle has a set of properties which are depending on what substance or object it represents, e.g. mass, volume, size, chemical properties, density, etc. These can be constants or vary with time, location, temperature, etc.

1.

Physical processes affecting the oil spill: STW + MedSlick + GNOME + MOTHY +

Initial spreading of the oil (gravity, viscosity, surface tension) Evaporation Emulsification Sinking Rising Stranding Sedimentation Dispersion Turbulence horizontal Turbulence vertical 2. Oil characteristics STW 38

+ + + + + + + + +

+ + + + + + + -

+ + + + + -

+ + + + + -

Number of oil types 3. Discharge

MedSlick 220

GNOME 6

MOTHY 3

Instantaneous Continuous On surface On depth

STW + + + +

MedSlick + + + -

GNOME + + + -

MOTHY + + + -

4. Point Line Area

Initial slick shape STW + + + MedSlick + GNOME + + + MOTHY + -

b)

Visual input/output interface

All systems, excluding GNOME, use visual input/output interface based on open source GISserver technology but in different modes (see Table 5).

5.

Forecasting parameters STW on line by customer via Web on line by customer via Web MedSlick by request to the Cyprus Center GNOME online (if funding available) off line MOTHY off line

Trajectory

Slick form

by request to the Cyprus Center

off line

c)

Forcing control data of the atmosphere and ocean circulation models.

6. Wind

Setting of forcing characteristics STW on line on line MedSlick on line on line GNOME spatially constant on line (if funding available) on line, indirectly on line off line MOTHY on line off line, monthly means

Currents

Waves Air temperature Water temperature

on line on line on line

on line on line on line

on line, indirectly on line off line

d)

Additional tools

7.

Tools STW on line by customer via Web on line by customer via Web on line by customer via Web on line by customer via Web MedSlick by request to the Cyprus Center, objects by request to the Cyprus Center by request to the Cyprus Center by request to the Cyprus Center GNOME not available MOTHY not available

Search and Rescue Backtracking

off line

off line

CleanSeaNet connection AIS connection

not available

not available

not available

not available

8.

Area of application STW MedSlick + + GNOME + + + MOTHY Shallow part +

Open Sea Coastal area Closed bays or port areas

+ + -

III.

Conclusions

From the table above it can be concluded that the STW system is one of the most advanced, complete and state-of-the-art system. In addition, the SeaTruckWeb system is available via the Internet, fully operational 24 hours a day

and user friendly. The validation of the STW system has showed very good results. The STW system has a connection with AIS and CleanSeaNet systems.

The system has a modular design, new features are easily implemented and the users

always have access to the latest version.

The main component of any system of forecasting of oil spills is a subsystem of supply of data on the dynamics and state waters and the atmospheric impact on them for the region under consideration. Hydrodynamic data is the most important parameter as it has the greatest influence on oil migration: oil moves with 100% current and approximately 3% wind. Without high-quality and operational data on winds and currents it cannot get a satisfactory forecast of oil spills. The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) recommended using as data on currents and winds for oil spill forecast in the regions of interests new information products emerging from the Marine Core Service of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Currently for the Black Sea, this is the MyOcean Black Sea Monitoring Forecasting Center (Black Sea MFC) located in MHI, Sevastopol.