Oil spill simulation in the Japan Sea

Kawamura, Hideyuki  ; Kobayashi, Takuya ; Hirose, Naoki*; Ito, Toshimichi ; Togawa, Orihiko 

An assessment system of marine environment in the Japan Sea is being constructed in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. It is composed of an ocean general circulation model (RIAMOM), a particle random-walk model (SEA-GEARN) and a radiation dose assessment model (COLDOS). This study aims to confirm a validity of the assessment system by reproducing a movement of spilled oil at an incident of Russian tanker Nakhodka, in January 1997. Realistic reproduction of ocean conditions is a significant factor for accurate simulations of the movement of spilled oil. In this study, one of data assimilation techniques, an approximate Kalman filter, was introduced by combining RIAMOM with sea level measurements of satellite data. The assimilated results were in good agreement with observed oceanic phenomena both qualitatively and quantitatively. Using the calculated ocean currents, simulations of behaviour of spilled oil was performed with SEA-GEARN. The tanker was ruptured in a storm about 100 km north of the Oki Islands in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, on January 2, 1997. Most of oil spread over off Hyogo, Kyoto, Fukui and Ishikawa Prefecture, meanwhile a part of it reached a coast of Niigata Prefecture detouring around Noto Peninsula by January 21, 1997. The most important feature in these regions is considered to be a branch of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC). Owing to a variability of TWC, ocean eddy activities and a sea surface wind, the spilled oil dispersed widely in space. On the other hand, the strong northeastward component of TWC was likely to drive the spilled oil to Niigata Prefecture. A number of experiments with different parameters and situations showed that the assimilated daily ocean currents with wind drift gave the best effect on simulation for the movement of spilled oil.