Offline Particle Trajectory Integration Module and Library (OPTIMAL)
Jinbo Wang
Scripps Insititution of Oceanography
June 27, 2014
This is an example of particle trajectories calculated by OPTIMAL with SOSE velocity fields.
2000 neutrally buoyant particles are released at 500m (first video) and 1500m (second video) depth at longitude 110W on January 1 2008, with 1000 particles at each level. Particles are advected offline by SOSE 3-D velocity fields (U,V,W).
The colored trajectory tails represent a 50-day trajectory history. The white lines represent the life-long trajectories. The trajectories at the last snapshot of the video are color-coded by latitude or Sea Surface Height (SSH) level. The mixing of trajectories with different colors indicate some level of mixing. One caveat is that, in this case, the particles are released at the same depth level instead of density level. One should be cautious about jumping into iany conclusion based on this illustration.