[Eoas-seminar] COAPS Short Seminar Series - Monday at 11:00

[eoas-seminar at lists.fsu.edu]

These talks are usually scheduled for the first Monday of each month. 
The first talk normally starts at 11:00AM.  Each talk is typically 12 
minutes long (similar to many professional meetings), with 8 minutes for 
questions; however, this month there will be two slightly longer talks.

These talks will be presented via Zoom, with the following connection 
information:

https://fsu.zoom.us/j/98491660566?pwd=NzBxNzN4LzdsbSs4R3B6RzliOGhhdz09

Meeting ID: 984 9166 0566
Passcode: 478314

Oct. 4th:

Luna Hiron: Intensification of Loop Current Frontal Eddies and their 
Interactions with the Loop Current and Surrounding Flow

Description:Loop Current Frontal Eddies (LCFEs) are cold-core vortices 
located in the Loop Current (LC) vicinity and are known to intensify and 
play an essential role in the LC shedding. This talk will present 
results on the interactions between strong frontal eddies and the LC and 
how these events modify the balance of forces in the LC front, shifting 
from a geostrophic to a gradient-wind balance regime. Additionally, the 
effect of the LCFE intensification on the local circulation is 
investigated. It was found that frontal eddies can (1) attract particles 
and passive tracers such as chlorophyll and oil from the surrounding 
Gulf water and the shelf to offshore regions, and (2) once inside the 
vortex boundary, the frontal eddies can transport these particles 
without exchange with the exterior for weeks. Thus, LCFE intensification 
is a crucial process for cross-shelf exchanges and predicting oil and 
particle transport in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Phillippe Miron: Transition Pathways of Marine Debris and the Stability 
of Garbage Patches

Description: Tons of plastic debris gets released into the ocean every 
day, and most of it accumulates within garbage patches in the center of 
each ocean. The most infamous one, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is 
in the North Pacific Ocean. In a recent publication, we explored debris 
pathways from the coasts to the garbage patches using transition path 
theory (TPT), as well as the relative strengths of different subtropical 
gyres in the ocean and how it influences the long-term accumulation of 
debris. The TPT analysis was applied on a pollution-aware Markov chain 
model constructed from trajectories of satellite-tracked undrogued buoys 
from the NOAA Global Drifter Program. Directly connecting pollution 
sources along coastlines with garbage patches of varied strengths, the 
unveiled pollution routes represent alternative targets for ocean 
cleanup efforts. Among our specific findings, we highlight: constraining 
a highly probable pollution source for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; 
characterizing the weakness of the Indian Ocean gyre as a trap for 
plastic waste; and unveiling a tendency of the subtropical gyres to 
export garbage toward the coastlines rather than to other gyres in the 
event of anomalously intense winds.


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