Revealing Lagrangian pathways for transport in a turbulent ocean.

Finding order in the apparent chaos that seems to govern transport processes in the ocean is a challenge. Dynamical system tools, such as Lagrangian Descriptors [1,2,3], reveal beautiful time dependent geometries in the ocean that comprise an efficient underlying transport network. Silbo, one of the first transoceanic autonomous underwater vehicle missions has corroborated the presence in the ocean of these dynamical structures and their capability to achieve unprecedented speed ups of the glider [4]. Additionally the evolution of the fuel spill subsequent to the sinking of the Oleg Naydenov fishing ship in the Gran Canaria coast, Spain in April 2015, confirmed that this dynamical template accurately described the long-time behavior of fuel blobs, identifying potentially dangerous regions for these types of oil spill disasters and the arrival points of slicks to the coast [5]. Finally, relevant findings in upper Arctic waters are also discussed [6].

References

[1] C. Mendoza, A. M. Mancho. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 3, 038501, (2010).

[2] A. M. Mancho, S. Wiggins, J. Curbelo, C. Mendoza. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 18, 3530-3557 (2013).

[3] C. Lopesino, F. Balibrea-Iniesta, V. J. García-Garrido, S. Wiggins, A. M. Mancho. Int. J. Bifurcation Chaos 27, 1730001 (2017).

[4] A. G. Ramos, V. J. García-Garrido, A. M. Mancho, S. Wiggins, J. Coca, S. Glenn, O. Schofield, J. Kohut, D. Aragon, J. Kerfoot, T. Haskins, T. Miles, C. Haldeman, N. Strandskov, B. Allsup, C. Jones, J. Shapiro. Sci. Rep. 8, 4575 (2018).

[5] V. J. Garcia-Garrido, A. Ramos, A. M. Mancho, J. Coca, S. Wiggins. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 112, 201-210, (2016).

[6] F. Balibrea-Iniesta, J. Xie, V. J. García-Garrido, L. Bertino, A. M. Mancho, S. Wiggins. (preprint) (2018).