The fate of plastics entering the 3D ocean circulation from rivers discharge is examined through the Lagrangian analysis of neutrally buoyant particles. Particles are released continuously over 1991-2010 at the surface along the coasts according to monthly estimates of rivers plastic waste input. They are advected by daily currents from a state-of-the-art global ocean model at 1/12° resolution. At the end of the simulation, particles remaining in the surface layer of 1~m thickness represent less than 2\% of the total particles released. These are concentrated in the center of subtropical gyres, mostly in the South Indian Ocean and the North Pacific, in relation with the large sources from Asia, and in good agreement with previous 2D numerical experiments in the surface layer. These patterns remain similar down to about 30 m depth, this upper layer strongly influenced by Ekman currents trapping about 20\% of the total released particles. About 50\% of the total released particles r
1Marine Technology and Operational Oceanography Group, Global Change and Physical Oceanography Departament, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
2Área de Oceanografía Operacional, Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas del Caribe, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
3Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
4Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Université de Toulon, Toulon, France
5International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States
The variability of La Guajira upwelling system, in the south-central Caribbean Sea, is strongly influenced by the intensity and location of the atmospheric Caribbean Low-Level Jet (CLLJ), a near-surface branch of the easterlies, as well as by the regional ocean circulation. During favorable conditions (i.e., strong easterlies blowing almost parallel to the coast), upwelling is enhanced and a large amount of p
more than 2,000 miles, really off the coast of western australia is reunion island where we are now where the supposed debris was found. many people saying that it could be could, in fact be the missing mh370 flight that has been one of the biggest aviation mysteries in history. just to give you a bit of detail about that. australian transport safety officials say it s not inconsistent with drift modeling. that s gyres and currents so that s what they are expecting. it is within their search area and not inconsistent with the search area they are covering. but it is not an exact science. it has a lot to do with surface currents wind direction and how an object floats in the water. here s what we know so far, john. mh370, the wreckage found, we do not know for sure at this point. the prime minister of malaysia stating that it is very likely to be the boeing 777 that s
currents that move east to west right around the equatorial region and they are very strong currents. it s not out of the realm of possibility that a wing of this size could actually have found its way into the surface currents and drifted those 2300 miles ending up on reunion island and certainly we ve seen things like this following the japan tsunami. it s certainly possible that this is from the malaysia airlines flight. i think it s also very important for us to understand here that there s a lot of debris out there beyond from just this wreckage. right. if you recall a year ago, you know there were many false alarms. i think it s important for us to be certain but certainly from an oceanographic perspective, it is possible. well and staying with you on the oceanographic perspective, if you were to find a piece of a plane, aren t they typically found in clusters? i m wondering if they found this one piece, how quickly, then if it is it they will begin to
this region. here s the thunderstorm the pilot was potentially trying to evade in requesting to go from 32,000 to 38,000 feet. and another thunderstorm ahead of it. here s the radar forecast the next couple of days. notice thunderstorms still wanting to bloom across this region. a few over what would presumably be the search area that being tuesday on into wednesday. so more weather expected across this region, and you wonder what the water temperatures are. i can tell you the death is about 46 meters, very shallow. you re talking about0 mile 70 miles to the east of where the last known area was. it would take any projected debris back toward indonesia in the coming couple of weeks. that s the surface currents the