Analysis of the contribution of wind drift factor to oil slick movement under strong tidal condition: Hebei Spirit oil spill case

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 30;9(1):e87393. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087393. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the wind drift factor under strong tidal conditions in the western coastal area of Korea on the movement of oil slicks caused by the Hebei Spirit oil spill accident in 2007. The movement of oil slicks was computed using a simple simulation model based on the empirical formula as a function of surface current, wind speed, and the wind drift factor. For the simulation, the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC) model and Automatic Weather System (AWS) were used to generate tidal and wind fields respectively. Simulation results were then compared with 5 sets of spaceborne optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. From the present study, it was found that highest matching rate between the simulation results and satellite imagery was obtained with different values of the wind drift factor, and to first order, this factor was linearly proportional to the wind speed. Based on the results, a new modified empirical formula was proposed for forecasting the movement of oil slicks on the coastal area.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidents
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods
  • Oils / chemistry*
  • Petroleum
  • Petroleum Pollution / analysis*
  • Republic of Korea
  • Water Movements
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / chemistry*
  • Wind

Substances

  • Oils
  • Petroleum
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical

Grants and funding

This research was a part of the projects (KOOS/PM57701, PM57541, PM57420), funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea. This work was also supported in part by the KIOST (www.kiost.ac) Projects (PE98911, PG47770) and the Brain Pool Project of Korea (brainpool.or.kr). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.