TOPtoTOP partnerships with the International Pacific Research Center in Honolulu
The project proposes to use the sailing yacht “Pachamama” to survey the structure and visibility of local
fronts and their effects on such tracers as oil film, marine debris, drifters, and radionuclides.
Intellectual Merit
The proposed study will provide an insight into frequency and properties of local convergent fronts
north of Hawaii, their internal surface velocity structure, and strength of the surface convergence.
Measurements of the latitude and values of the radioactive tracer plume from the Fukushima nuclear
crisis will validate models and help design future, multi-year study of the three-dimensional ocean
circulation, such as tracer subduction in the Garbage Patch area starting from 2014 and its subsurface
transport toward the equator in the “salty tongue”.
Broader Impact
The proposed project addresses the problem of marine debris, which recently attracts much attension
of the society. Data from ship-mounted camera and high-resolution satellite images will be compared
with reports from visual surveillance to assess the ability of the innovative tools to detect debris and
slick. If validated, the correlation between debris and slicks can be used to design future marine debris
observing system. The project involves international collaboration, with broad dissemination of the
results via social media. School students aboard the S/Y “Pachamama” will obtain unique experience of
scientific work at sea.
Background
Slicks or “lines on water” are common in the ocean and are often associated with oceanic fronts,
collecting oil film from natural or man-made sources (c.f., Ryan et al., 2010). The surface film suppresses
the ripples (the shortest waves) and makes the sea surface in the slick looking smoother. There are
multiple mechanisms that may generate fronts, including wind over baroclinic ocean features, overflow
of light water over heavy water, heterogeneous turbulence, thermal convection etc. The strongest
horizontal convergence occurs locally on scale from tens to hundreds of meters. These scales are
beyond the resolution of most of scientific satellites or ocean observing systems. Same fronts are also
known for their ability to collect, align, and trap for extended period of time floating debris and drifting
buoys.
Land-based sources and maritime and fishing activity are estimated to add to the North Pacific 1-2
million tons of marine debris annually, polluting both the ocean and the coastline. Reports from the
Garbage Patch (convergence located between Hawaii and California), Kamilo Beach (Big Island of
Hawaii) and from beaches of Alaska and Aleutian Islands revealed large amounts of long-living plastic
accumulating in these remote areas. Increasing number of studies finds the microplastics in all
components of the ecosystem and recognizes the new threat to the health of the ocean.
March 11, 2011 tsunami in Japan produced millions of tons marine debris and injected into the ocean
unprecedented amount of radionuclides from Fukushima reactors. Driven by ocean currents and
atmospheric winds, both the debris and the radioactive water were moving since the disaster towards
the east, and, according to models and reports on high- and medium-windage tsunami debris, by now
they reached the areas north and even northeast of Hawaii.
Workplan and Tasks
Start date: as soon as possible
Project duration: 1 year
The project includes overlapping observations taken from the boat or remotely with a set of
instruments: visual observations, boat-mast-mounted high-resolution camera, satellite submeter optical
images, GPS drifters, seawater and microplastics samples. Quasi-zonal orientation of major open ocean
currents and fronts in the open North Pacific warrants that, although two-dimensional maps of fronts
and tracers are not available, the boat sailing north of Hawaii will cross the major fronts, currents, and
plumes half-way to Alaska.
After departure of the boat from Honolulu, the University of Hawaii (UH) team will use real-time
satellite and weather data as well as debris reports from boaters and agencies to guide the yacht to the
area of the experiment, tentatively located between 37° and 39° N. The choice of the latitude range is
based on model solutions, predicting location of the radioactive plume and location of the low-windage
debris. However, the plan may be corrected if the boat detects interesting fronts before reaching 37°N.
If possible, the schedule of the boat will be adjusted so that it will arrive in the area in the morning and
all crew members will participate in the visual survey of slicks and marine debris. During the search the
boat will inspect locations of eight active buoys of the Global Drifter Program to see whether some of
them are trapped by fronts.
Figure 1. Current distribution
of marine debris, generated
by the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
Colors indicate the windage
of the objects. Note high
concentrations north of
Hawaii of tracers with
windages ranging from low to
medium.
Figure 2. Current model tracer
distribution a constant source,
simulating the Fukushima spill
and slow release from the
contaminated near-coastal area.
Units are conventional.
After detecting a distinct slick or a system of slicks on the ocean surface, the boat will sail along the
slick(s) for some hours to explore their extent, maximum width, and presence of collocated marine
debris.
After the survey, the boat will return to location, where the surface slick/front is most contrast. 20 costeffective drifters, equipped with GPS loggers will be deployed along two lines perpendicular to the front.
Motion of drifters will be monitored for several hours after what as many of them as possible will be
collected for the accurate trajectory analysis. Although every attempt will be made to intercept “runaway” drifters, even loss of 50% of the drifters is acceptable for the success of the experiment.
High-resolution optical satellite images of the experiment area will be ordered from the GeoEye
company before, during and after the expedition.
10 water samples will be collected during the expedition to locate the latitude of the Fukushima
radionuclides plume. Frequency of samples will increase towards 37-39°N. Three samples will be taken
at the axis and on edges of the sick/front.
These observations will contribute to the following tasks.
Task1. Investigate the abundance of local fronts, visualized with slicks and marine debris. Document
local pattern of fronts, their extent and width. Assess frequency of the fronts as a function of latitude
and as a function of wind speed.
Task 2. Study structure and dynamics of the front through trajectories of GPS drifters. This includes
velocity structure across the front, drifter dispersion and movements across the front, relative positions
of the slick axis and the frontal jet axis. Also assess the value of the horizontal convergence at the front.
Task 3. Collect water samples to determine the latitude of plume axis and maximum concentration
values of radionuclides, originating from Fukushima nuclear crisis. These results will validate numerical
models, will calibrate model solutions and help assess the total radiation released during the crisis.
Comparison of the maximum measured values with the background radiation will verify the feasibility of
future, multi-year tracking of Fukushima radionuclides to study three-dimensional ocean circulation.
Task 4. Collect samples of microplastic along the meridional transect and in the vicinity of strong fronts,
using the filter of the boat water maker. Compare measured distribution of microplastics with the lowwindage numerical model solution. Test the new technology for safe sample collection (an alternative to
the traditional trawl).
Task 5. Inspect the areas, predicted by models for the location of low-windage debris. Search the areas
for the presence of woody debris, such as lumber from broken houses and logs of broken trees. Millions
of tons of such debris was produced by the 2011 tsunami and their fate remains largely unknown.
Task 6. Use visual, camera, and satellite observations to study the visibility of slicks and marine debris
under different weather conditions. Assess the feasibility of debris tracking through tracking slicks and
fronts. Results of this task will contribute to development of the marine debris observing system, based
on ships of opportunity and remote sensing.
Actuality of the proposed project
Winter storms prohibit or make tremendously difficult ship and satellite observations in the North
Pacific. The summer season of 2013 is unique because this is when models estimate slow-moving lowwindage tracers from the 2011 tsunami in Japan to reach the longitude of Hawaii. (Reports in Summer
2011 and Summer 2012 were scares because the tracers were drifting in the gap between most active
ship lanes.) The project also uses the unique opportunity of collaboration with highly-qualified and
highly motivated TopToTop expedition, departing in June 2013 from Honolulu and sailing north to
Anchorage, Alaska.
Project Team
The project is based on collaboration between scientists at the University of Hawaii (UH) and Swiss
expedition “TOPtoTOP”.
At UH, Dr. Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner lead multi-year study of the North Pacific marine debris in
general and debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan in particular. They applying their experience with
ocean currents to assess motion of various tracers in real-time products. And they collect debris
observations to verify their models and to understand underlying dynamics, driving tracers on
submesoscale and smaller scales.
Their modeling efforts on tsunami debris are highlighted at
http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/news/marine_and_tsunami_debris/IPRC_tsunami_debris_models.php
and data collection activity is highlighted at
http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/news/marine_and_tsunami_debris/sightings.php
Maximenko will provide the general supervision of all components of the project, will analyze the data,
synthesize them with the data from other sources and models, and publish the results in a scientific
journal. Hafner will coordinate practical preparations for the experiment, operational interaction with
the boat, and safe data and sample transfer to the university. Dr. Henrieta Dulaiova is marine chemist at
UH, who works in the radionuclides study from Fukushima since the emergence of the nuclear crisis in
March 2011. Dulaiova will provide the guidance for sea water samples collection, will process the
samples in the laboratory, and synthesize the results with the information from other sources.
Dario Schwoerer leads the multi-year TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition. The expedition (under
patronage of the UNEP, Swiss government and MyClimate project) studies different climate zones by
sailing to different latitudes and also by climbing high mountains. Since its start in 2009, the expedition
already sailed more than 40,000 miles in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The highlights of the expedition
are available at http://toptotop.org/ and the blog is at http://www.expedition.toptotop.org/ .
The 50-feet yacht is equipped with all tools necessary for safe navigation and taking samples and doing
observations. Schworer and his crew will supervise all aspects of the boat activity, from preparation for
the experiment, acquiring and installation of the equipment, navigating the yacht, collecting samples
and taking observations to providing safe operations during all stages of the expedition.
All participants of the project will use opportunity available for them with social media to advertise
project results.
Reference
Ryan, J. P., A. M. Fischer, R. M. Kudela, M. A. McManus, J. S. Myers, J. D. Paduan, C. M. Ruhsam, C. B.
Woodson, and Y. Zhang (2010), Recurrent frontal slicks of a coastal ocean upwelling shadow, J. Geophys.
Res., 115, C12070, doi:10.1029/2010JC006398.
There is large volume of publications on the subject. For brevity, we include here only this paper and its
conclusion that: “Surfactant accumulation in small-scale convergence zones is indicated
as the primary mechanism of slick formation, not ocean current shear
or small-scale air-sea coupling.”