Impact of physical process on propagating oil spills in the Caspian Sea

Abstract

This study aims to inspect the oil spill propagation in the Caspian Sea using Sentinel-1 data as well as wind and observation data. Detection processes clearly show that although the north and middle basin are the main sources of oil pollution, the southern basin would be the final destination of these oil slicks. Comparison of oil spill clusters in the southern and on the Apsheron indicates that the size of these clusters decreases under the physical process of the southern basin like eddies. Further, the mixed layer is estimated at 25–35 m in the southern basin. After applying the analytical formulas, the eddy diffusivity profile is plotted, leading to an estimate of nearly 5 × 10−4 m2/s on the surface water. The droplet oil diameters are calculated which vary from 150 μm to 250 μm based on an analytical model in a steady-state mode.