International Oil Spill Modeling Working Group

The Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and NOAA’s Office of Response & Restoration (ORR) are forming a working group to (1) evaluate the state of the science of oil spill modeling, (2) explore potential for advancements in algorithms and other topics (e.g., data injects), and (3) promote collaboration within the spill modeling community and interaction of Great Lakes spill modelers with other experts.  The funding for this working group is being provided by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE) as part of its effort to operationalize innovative ideas that improve freshwater and arctic oil spill response. 

One aspect of that response that needs innovative ideas for is fate, behavior and trajectory modeling.  We anticipate that the discussions among working group experts will ensure that the state of the art in oil spill models will be operational in the Great Lakes and elsewhere.  Dr. Matthew Alloy is the GLCOE’s research scientist and is serving as the POC for this project.