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Impact mpact of Tidal Forcing Tidal Forcing on Surface Particle Transport Properties: Insights from Twin Ocean SimulationsSurface Particle Transport1 Properties: Insights from Twin Ocean Simulations
  • +6
  • Laura Gomez-Navarro,
  • Erik Van Sebille,
  • Verónica MORALES MÁRQUEZ,
  • Ismael Hernandez-Carrasco,
  • Aurelie Albert,
  • Clement Ubelmann,
  • Julien Le Sommer,
  • Jean-Marc Molines,
  • Laurent Brodeau
Laura Gomez-Navarro
Utrecht University, Utrecht University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Erik Van Sebille
Utrecht University, Utrecht University
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Verónica MORALES MÁRQUEZ
Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie, Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie
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Ismael Hernandez-Carrasco
SOCIB / IMEDEA, SOCIB / IMEDEA
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Aurelie Albert
Universite Grenoble Alpes /CNRS/IGE, Universite Grenoble Alpes /CNRS/IGE
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Clement Ubelmann
Datlas, Datlas
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Julien Le Sommer
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE
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Jean-Marc Molines
French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
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Laurent Brodeau
Datlas, Datlas
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Abstract

Understanding the pathways of floating material at the surface ocean is important to improve our knowledge on surface circulation and for its ecological and environmental impacts. Virtual particle simulations are a common method to simulate the dispersion of floating material. To advect the particles, velocities from ocean models are often used. Yet, the contribution of different ocean dynamics (at different temporal and spatial scales) to the net Lagrangian transport remains unclear. Here we focus on tidal forcing, only included in recent models, and so our research question is: What is the effect of tidal forcing on virtual particle dispersion at the ocean surface? By comparing a twin simulation with and without tidal forcing, we conclude that tides play an important role in horizontal Lagrangian dynamics. We focus on the Açores Islands region, and we find that surface particles travel a longer cumulative distance and a lower total distance with than without tidal forcing and a higher variability in surface particle accumulation patterns is present with tidal forcing.  The differences found in the surface particle accumulation patterns can be more than a 40\% increase/decrease. This has important implications for virtual particle simulations, showing that more than tidal currents need to be considered.  A deeper understanding of the dynamics behind these tidal forcing impacts is necessary, but our outcomes can already help improve Lagrangian simulations. This is particularly relevant for simulations done to understand the connectivity of marine species and for marine pollution applications.
30 Oct 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
30 Oct 2024Published in ESS Open Archive