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SUMMARY:Dynamical systems methods for tracking oil dispersion in ocean flo
 wsand their application during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - Igor Mezi
 c\, Engineering\, UCSB
DTSTART:20150604T110000Z
DTEND:20150604T120000Z
UID:TALK58678@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Pearson
DESCRIPTION:Extraction of characteristic Lagrangian structures governing t
 ransport in complex ocean flows is an active area of research. The techniq
 ues used in it are those of dynamical systems theory. The Deepwater Horizo
 n oil spill in 2010 was a substantial test of such theories\, given the av
 ailability of data from satellite observations and other sources and an ac
 tive effort of ocean dynamics modeling that was being matched to such obse
 rvations. We pursued an active modeling and analysis effort during the 201
 0 spill\, within which we proposed a new mixing diagnostic - mesohyperboli
 city - that discovers\nconvergent\, divergent\, rotational and mixing zone
 s in a flow and thus indicated modes of oil dispersion both above and belo
 w the surface. Since the irruption of gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico 
 during the Deepwater Horizon event fed a deep sea bacterial bloom that con
 sumed hydrocarbons in the affected waters\, formed a regional oxygen\nanom
 aly\, and altered the microbiology of the region \, we also developed a co
 upled physical–metabolic model to assess the impact of mixing processes 
 on these deep ocean bacterial communities and their capacity for hydrocarb
 on and oxygen use. We found that observed biodegradation patterns were wel
 l-described by exponential\ngrowth of bacteria from seed populations prese
 nt at low abundance and that current oscillation and mixing processes play
 ed a critical role in distributing hydrocarbons and associated bacterial b
 looms within the northeast Gulf of Mexico.  One use of these sorts of comp
 utations is in oil containment and cleanup. The mesohyperbolicity calculat
 ions can provide detailed spatial locations of mixing and concentration ev
 ents days in advance. In addition\, if a layer model is used\, providing t
 he velocity field at different depths information on possible locations of
  underwater\nplumes can be uncovered and supplied to research vessels so t
 hey can perform detailed measurements\nat those locations.
LOCATION:Open Plan Area\, BP Institute\, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ
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