Offline Tracer Advection in a Realistic Regional Ocean Model

Kristen M Thyng, Texas A&M University College Station, College Station, TX, United States, Veronica Ruiz Xomchuk, Texas A&M University, Oceanography, College Station, TX, United States, Daijiro Kobashi, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States, Lixin Qu, Texas A&M University College Station, Oceanography, College Station, TX, United States, Robert D Hetland, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States, Dmitry S Dukhovskoy, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States, Steven Morey, Florida A&M University, School of the Environment, Tallahassee, FL, United States, Xu Chen, Florida State University, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Tallahassee, United States and Eric Chassignet, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States
Abstract:
Oil, sediment, and microbial interactions have been shown to be important for determining the fate of oil in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Efficient modeling of many different scenarios is enabled with the ability to simulate the interactions offline using saved velocity fields from an ocean model. As part of CSOMIO (Consortium for Simulation of Oil Microbial Interactions in the Ocean), we first investigate simulating a passive tracer offline and compare with online simulations, using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) in a realistic model in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We choose an optimal offline time step based on these comparisons, then introduce increasing complexity in the modeled interactions. We start by modeling oil alone before modeling the combination of oil with other components of the system. Because we can run this system offline, we also are able to run scenarios in another realistic ocean model of the Texas and Louisiana continental shelves.
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