The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill: a modeling study

Abstract

This study modeled the oil spill of April 22 to May 8, 2010, in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The model reproduced the hydrodynamics, waves, weather conditions, and oil spill. In the hydrodynamic model, the domain was implemented as two levels of nested meshes; the first level was barotropic, and the second was three-dimensional baroclinic. The model forcings included for modeling were the tidal, waves, atmospheric, and oceanic conditions. The wave model was forced by the wind and calculated for the dates of the spill. For the oil model, the transport (path) and destination (weathering) processes were computed using the oceanic and atmospheric conditions calculated from the results of the hydrodynamic and wind–wave model. The location of the oil spill predicted by the simulation was validated by comparison with the NOAA 24-h forecast location shapefile. The model estimated results like real scenarios, which shows a high level of reliability and suitability for forecasting future oil spills in other marine areas.