Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014. Potential sites of where the plane entered the water are considered within a vast region of the Indian Ocean. We present a methodology to assess the potential crash site based on where airplane debris was found, with an emphasis on the first debris discovery on Reunion Island. This methodology uses the historical dataset of surface drifters and numerical modeling results. Marine debris, depending on its buoyancy, is exposed to varying amounts of wind, and we conducted tests for a suite of different scenarios. The methodology proposed here enables us to generate fields of particle density probability to assess debris trajectories and, therefore, hypothesize on the potential crash site. We provide an estimate of the most likely windage affecting floating debris on its way to Reunion Island by assuming the plane entered the sea in the defined search area. Our results indicate that areas within the Indian Ocean subtropical gyre, including the search area, could be a source of the debris found on Reunion Island. We also identify zones that can be excluded as potential crash sites and provide estimated travel times and probable ashore positions of plane debris through an analysis of the historical surface drifter dataset. Recent discoveries of new debris linked to flight MH370 in Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius, and Tanzania are consistent with our results and confirm the general westward drift and travel time of debris from the search area.
Meinen, C. S.; Garzoli, S. L.; Perez, R. C.; Campos, E.; Piola, A. R.; Chidichimo, M. P.; Dong, S. F.; Sato, O. T.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Ocean Science, 13(1), 175-194.
Description:
The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) at 34.5 degrees S in the South Atlantic carries a significant fraction of the cold deep limb of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), and therefore its variability affects the meridional heat transport...
This study examines the causes of observed sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic between 1982 and 2015. The emphasis is on the boreal winter and spring seasons, when tropical Atlantic SSTs project strongly onto the At...
Kourafalou, V. H.; Androulidakis, Y. S.; Halliwell, G. R.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M. M.; Le Henaff, M.; Atlas, R.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Progress in Oceanography, 148, 1-25.
Description:
A high resolution, free-running model has been developed for the hurricane region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The model is evaluated with a variety of observations to ensure that it adequately represents both the ocean climatology and variability ov...
Volkov, D. L.; Lee, S. K.; Landerer, F. W.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 927-936.
Description:
The persistent energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, inferred from satellite measurements, indicates that the Earth's climate system continues to accumulate excess heat. As only sparse and irregular measurements of ocean heat below 2000m dep...
Leidner, S. M.; Nehrkorn, T.; Henderson, J.; Mountain, M.; Yunck, T.; Hoffman, R. N.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Monthly Weather Review, 145(2), 637-651.
Description:
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultations (RO) over the last 10 years have proved to be a valuable and essentially unbiased data source for operational global numerical weather prediction. However, the existing sampling coverage is...
Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 121(10), 7547-7559.
Description:
The seasonal variability of the Florida Current (FC) transport is often characterized by the presence of an average annual cycle (8% of the variance) of approximate to 3 Sv range peaking in boreal summer. However, the seasonality displayed by the FC ...
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74(2), 333-351.
Description:
The in situ generation of easterly waves (EWs) in the east Pacific (EPAC) is investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The sensitivity of the model to the suppression of EW forcing by locally generated convective disturbanc...
Laurent, A.; Fennel, K.; Cai, W. J.; Huang, W. J.; Barbero, L.; Wanninkhof, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 946-956.
Description:
Nutrient inputs from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River system into the northern Gulf of Mexico promote high phytoplankton production and lead to high respiration rates. Respiration coupled with water column stratification results in seasonal summer h...
Pendleton, L.; Comte, A.; Langdon, C.; Ekstrom, J. A.; Cooley, S. R.; Suatoni, L.; Beck, M. W.; Brander, L. M.; Burke, L.; Cinner, J. E.; Doherty, C.; Edwards, P. E. T.; Gledhill, D.; Jiang, L. Q.; van Hooidonk, R. J.; Teh, L.; Waldbusser, G. G.; Ritter, J.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
PLOS ONE, 11(11), 21.
Description:
Reefs and People at Risk Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature ...
Androulidakis, Y.; Kourafalou, V.; Halliwell, G.; Le Henaff, M.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M.; Atlas, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Ocean Dynamics, 66(12), 1559-1588.
Description:
The evolution of three successive hurricanes (Katia, Maria, and Ophelia) is investigated over the river plume area formed by the Amazon and Orinoco river outflows during September of 2011. The study focuses on hurricane impacts on the ocean structure...
Putman, N. F.; Lumpkin, R.; Sacco, A. E.; Mansfield, K. L.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1844), 20161689.
Description:
Predictions of organismal movements in a fluid require knowing the fluid's velocity and potential contributions of the organism's behaviour (e.g. swimming or flying). While theoretical aspects of this work are reasonably well-developed, field-based v...
Enochs, I. C.; Manzello, D. P.; Kolodziej, G.; Noonan, S. H. C.; Valentino, L.; Fabricius, K. E.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 283(1842), 8.
Description:
Ocean acidification (OA) impacts the physiology of diverse marine taxa; among them corals that create complex reef framework structures. Biological processes operating on coral reef frameworks remain largely unknown from naturally high-carbon-dioxide...
Heron, S. F.; Maynard, J. A.; van Hooidonk, R.; Eakin, C. M.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 38402.
Description:
Coral reefs across the world's oceans are in the midst of the longest bleaching event on record (from 2014 to at least 2016). As many of the world's reefs are remote, there is limited information on how past thermal conditions have influenced reef co...
van Hooidonk, R.; Maynard, J.; Tamelander, J.; Gove, J.; Ahmadia, G.; Raymundo, L.; Williams, G.; Heron, S. F.; Planes, S.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 39666.
Description:
Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at whic...
Olascoaga, M. J.; Beron-Vera, F. J.; Miron, P.; Triñanes, J.; Putman, N. F.; Lumpkin, R.; Goni, G. J.;
Published Date:
2020
Source:
Physics of Fluids 32, 026601 (2020)
Description:
We present results from an experiment designed to better understand the mechanism by which ocean currents and winds control flotsam drift. The experiment consisted of deploying in the Florida Current and subsequent satellite tracking of specially des...
Miron, P.; Olascoaga, M. J.; Beron-Vera, F. J.; Putman, N. F.; Triñanes, J.; Lumpkin, R.; Goni, G. J.;
Published Date:
2020
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 47(19)
Description:
Drifters designed to mimic floating marine debris and small patches of pelagic Sargassum were satellite tracked in four regions across the North Atlantic. Though subjected to the same initial conditions at each site, the tracks of different drifters ...
Putman, N. F.; Goni, G. J.; Gramer, L. J.; Hu, C. M.; Johns, E. M.; Trinanes, J.; Wang, M. Q.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Progress in Oceanography, 165, 205-214.
Description:
Since 2011, beach inundation of massive amounts of pelagic Sargassum algae has occurred around the Caribbean nations and islands. Previous studies have applied satellite ocean color to determine the origins of this phenomenon. These techniques, combi...
United States. National Ocean Service. Marine Debris Division
Published Date:
2016
Description:
Man-made debris in the ocean is now found from the poles to the equator and from shorelines, estuaries, and the sea surface to the ocean floor (STAP, 2011). General oceanic circulation patterns, particularly surface currents, greatly affect the redis...
Hernandez, F.; Blockley, E.; Brassington, G. B.; Davidson, F.; Divakaran, P.; Drevillon, M.; Ishizaki, S.; Garcia-Sotillo, M.; Hogan, P. J.; Lagemaa, P.; Levier, B.; Martin, M.; Mehra, A.; Mooers, C.; Ferry, N.; Ryan, A.; Regnier, C.; Sellar, A.; Smith, G. C.; Sofianos, S.; Spindler, T.; Volpe, G.; Wilkin, J.; Zaron, E. D.; Zhang, A. J.;
Published Date:
2015
Source:
Journal of Operational Oceanography, 8, S221-S238.
Description:
Operational ocean forecast systems provide routine marine products to an ever-widening community of users and stakeholders. The majority of users need information about the quality and reliability of the products to exploit them fully. Hence, forecas...
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