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Studying the Baltic Sea Circulation with Eulerian Tracers

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Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection

Abstract

As shipping of environmentally hazardous cargo, like oil, has increased considerably in the Baltic in recent years, methods are needed to calculate the fairways between two harbours such that hazardous substances from a hypothetical accident will stay as long as possible away from ecologically sensitive areas like the coastal zone. For this purpose an ensemble approach based upon Eulerian tracer simulations is presented which has the potential to be further developed to become operational for the optimization of fairways. First, we introduce and compare Eulerian and Lagrangian descriptions of any fluid in general. Second, a three-dimensional circulation model of the Baltic Sea is presented from which currents are used to calculate the evolution of the Eulerian tracers in time that obey traditional advection-diffusion equations. The model set-up is presented in detail to illustrate the potential of ocean circulation models for our purposes but also their shortcomings. Third, examples of studies using Eulerian tracers are presented that analyse the characteristics of the circulation, like ventilation time scales and age of water masses. Finally, we focus on three selected examples of oil spill modelling using Eulerian methods. Although oil spill modelling very often utilizes a Lagrangian particle approach, we show that even Eulerian methods can be used that might under certain circumstances have some advantages compared to the Lagrangian approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This notion is used here to denote the Eastern, Northern and Western Gotland Basin, Bornholm Basin and Gdańsk Bay (cf. Chap. 2, Fig. 2.1).

  2. 2.

    A current vector is defined by its magnitude (or current speed) and its direction in three dimensions.

  3. 3.

    The formal parameterizations of sub-grid processes described in Chaps. 3, 7 and 10 only improve statistics of spreading of trajectories but do not improve the match of trajectories with reality.

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Acknowledgements

The research presented in this study is part of the project BalticWay (The potential of currents for environmental management of the Baltic Sea maritime industry) and has received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007–2013) under Grant agreement No. 217246 made with BONUS, the joint Baltic Sea research and development program, and from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas, Ref. No. 2008–1898).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, 60176, Norrköping, Sweden

    H. E. Markus Meier & Anders Höglund

  2. Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    H. E. Markus Meier

Authors
  1. H. E. Markus Meier
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  2. Anders Höglund
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Correspondence to H. E. Markus Meier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Cybernetics, Laboratory of Wave Engineering, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia Tee 21, Tallinn, 12618, Estonia

    Tarmo Soomere

  2. Inst. Cybernetics, Laboratory of Wave Engineering, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia Tee 21, Tallinn, 12618, Estonia

    Ewald Quak

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Meier, H.E.M., Höglund, A. (2013). Studying the Baltic Sea Circulation with Eulerian Tracers. In: Soomere, T., Quak, E. (eds) Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection. Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00440-2_4

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