Abstract:

Stokes drift is a potentially important contributing factor to transport of oil on the sea surface. We collected WAVEWATCH III hindcast data in an ascii format and used parameters from this model to calculate Stokes drift at the surface. We then collected the Stokes drift data in netCDF files to make them more available to the scientific community. The WAVEWATCH III hindcast output data was obtained from NOAA's National Weather Service Environmental Modeling Center (http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/viewer.shtml?-multi_1-gmex-).

Suggested Citation:

Skancke, Jørgen. 2017. Stokes drift Eulerian velocity components in the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7FB51BP

Purpose:

Stokes drift components can be used to improve calculation of transport in the ocean, especially on the surface.

Data Parameters and Units:

float lon(x): longitude (decimal degrees); float lat(y): latitude (decimal degrees); double wave_time(wave_time): time (days since 2000-01-01 00:00:00), float date(wave_time): time in date format (YYYYMMDDHH) float Hs(wave_time, y, x): significant wave height (m) float T_m2(wave_time, y, x): wave period (s) float theta_0(wave_time, y, x): wave direction (degrees) float us_0(wave_time, y, x): stokes drift x velocity (m/s) float vs_0(wave_time, y, x): stokes drift y velocity (m/s) float F_w(wave_time, y, x): surface mixing energy (kg/s^3)

Methods:

The metadata about units and parameters are given in the netCDF file header. The header can be viewed with the ncdump program or any of the many netCDF graphical viewers. Each file includes monthly data described by the year and month in the file name (ex. multi_1.partition.at_10m.201004_RED_SD.nc includes data from April 2010).

Individual Files: