Gulfspill Version 2.0: a software package for oil spills in the Arabian Gulf

A software package is described for the prediction of the movement and fate of oil spills in the Arabian Gulf. The package is designed to run on a PC operating under Windows and has user-friendly graphical interfaces for model input and for examination of the output. The package contains several optional programs: a simple trajectory model, as well as models for large-scale spills that encompass a significant area of the water body and for smaller spills that remain localized in an arbitrarily small sub-region. The models are based on a three-dimensional hydrodynamical model of the Arabian Gulf that has been tested and calibrated to a high degree of accuracy. The fate of the oil encompasses the processes of evaporation, emulsification, dispersion by wave action into the water column, beaching on the coasts (and possible re-entry into the water body) and mechanical spreading. Examples are shown to illustrate typical input and output screens and to demonstrate the accuracy of the model.

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