Forecasting Accidental Marine Pollution Drift:The French Operational Plan
In case of accidental marine pollution, Cedre and Meteo-France, within the framework of their own public service missions, provide assistance to the French authorities in charge of pollution response. Meteo-France has developed a numerical marine oil pollution transport model, named MOTHY, designed to simulate the transport of oil in three dimensions. A hydrodynamic ocean model is linked to an oil spill model including current shear, vertical movements and fate of the oil. The use of a global atmospheric model for atmospheric forcing enables world-wide application of the model. This oil spill response system has been operational since February 1994. In case of marine pollution, MeteoFrance send meteorological forecasts and oil spill drift forecasts to Cedre. In return, by its experimentations and interventions on actual pollution, Cedre is contributing to the improvement and validation of the model. New developments, exercises and training are conducted jointly. This paper summarizes the key features of MOTHY and presents some examples of model applications. Transactions on Ecology and the Environment vol 20, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541