Developments of the OceanParcels Lagrangian Ocean Analysis framework

With the increasing amount of data produced by numerical ocean models, so increases the need for efficient tools to analyse these data. One of these tools is Lagrangian Ocean Analysis, where a set of virtual particles are released and their dynamics is integrated in time based on fields defining the ocean state, including the hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry if available. This popular methodology needs to adapt to the large variety of models producing these fields at different formats. This is precisely the aim of Parcels, a Lagrangian ocean analysis framework designed to combine (1) a wide flexibility to model particles of different natures and (2) an efficient implementation in accordance with modern computing infrastructure.

Parcels is primarily written in Python, utilising the wide range of tools available in the scientific Python ecosystem, while generating low-level C-code and using Just-In-Time compilation for performance-critical computation.

Here, we will demonstrate the ease of use of this code in simulating particles as plastic. Parcels allows seamless customisation of behaviour, by adding user-defined kernels. This customisation of behaviour is critical in our studies into the global distribution and fate of plastic particulates. We will discuss the code’s current limitations and future development plan. We will also highlight some of the other applications of the OceanParcels framework, including the simulation of plankton and fish.