modeling

OR&R created the Trajactory Analysis Planner, or TAP, to help answer the question: Where will spilled oil likely go? Recent enhancements make the NOAA software tool more flexible and easier for planners and responders to use when preparing for and minimizing harm caused by oil spills.

NOAA is the lead U.S. federal agency responsible for the conservation and protection of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions). Within NOAA, that role is delegated to NOAA Fisheries, but sometimes other NOAA offices are called in to help. In this instance, "helping" involved dealing with a stranded whale carcass.

When whales wash onto beaches they create a stinky and potentially dangerous hazard. After NOAA or local marine mammal experts have responded and investigated the cause of death, the next step is getting the carcass off the beach. 

From March 30 to April 20, tune in as we go back in time to the day of our country’s largest marine oil spill, what’s happened since then, and how we’re better prepared for future spills. In our latest blog, learn more about how Deepwater Horizon helped improve NOAA's oil modeling capabilities. 

This feature is part of a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s scientist is Amy MacFadyen, an oceanographer in OR&R’s oil spill response program. She responds to oil and chemical spills across the country, and leads the development of the GNOME™ suite for oil spill modeling.

As a sea kayaking enthusiast who enjoys paddling the waters of Washington’s Puget Sound, I need to have up-to-date information about the currents I’m passing through. Accurate predictions of the strong tidal currents in the sound are critical to safe navigation, and kayak trips in particular need to be timed carefully to ensure safe passage of certain regions.

As a NOAA oceanographer and modeler, I also depend on accurate information about ocean currents to predict where spilled pollutants may travel in the marine environment.

One foggy morning in 2007, a cargo ship was gliding across the gray waters of San Francisco Bay when it ran into trouble, quite literally. This ship, the M/V Cosco Busan, struck the Bay Bridge, tearing a hundred-foot-long gash in its hull and releasing 53,000 gallons of thick, sticky fuel oil into the bay.