Simulations of oil-spill trajectories: Gulf of Mexico

Trajectories of oil-spill simulating drifters deployed in the Gulf of Mexico in Nov. 1998 were tracked by the Service ARGOS system for 30 days for the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS); some drifters persisted in transmitting longer. Comparisons were then made against computer-model-generated oil-spill simulations using, in part, an ocean current field produced by the Princeton Regional Ocean Forecast System (PROFS) employing data assimilation of CCAR's blended altimeter data products which include TP and Jason data.