No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The use of tracking buoys in oil spill response, planning, and training and criteria for the selection of these buoys were studied in conjunction with an experiment conducted in the Gulf of Mexico during March 1994 on the relative motions of several oil spill drifter buoys. For the test, wood chips and cottonseed hulls were used to simulate the motion of the oil. Six different types of buoys and three different positioning and tracking systems, in various combinations, were tested. The first day of the program was conducted in Galveston Bay, the second in the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston. Significant differences were noted in the movements of the various buoys. Analysis of the data from these experiments suggests that tracking of the buoys should occur for a longer time period than in the experiments in order to reduce the influence of positioning errors.

No abstract

The Hazardous Material Response and Assessment Division (HAZMAT) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses the oil weathering software package named Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills (ADIOS) to investigate the oil weathering process. This model combines a database of physical and chemical properties of oils with a simulation model computing mass losses, density, viscosity, and water content of an oil spill due to evaporation, dispersion, and emulsification. A first-order sensitivity analysis of the ADIOS evaporation algorithm indicates that it might be possible to provide a taxonomy of oils with respect to the reliability of results generated by the model.

No abstract