Marine slicks due to inhomogeneous coastal currents. Simultaneous SAR and in situ observations

Stanislav Ermakov⁽¹⁾, Ivan Kapustin⁽¹⁾, Tatiana Lazareva⁽¹⁾, Eugeny Makarov⁽¹⁾, Irina Sergievskaya⁽¹⁾, Olga Lavrova⁽²⁾ and Marina Mitjagina⁽²⁾

⁽¹⁾ Institute of Applied Physics RAS, 46 Ul'janova St., 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation
⁽²⁾ Institute of Space Research, 84/32 Profsoyuznaya Str, 117997 Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract

Co-located simultaneous field observations and Envisat ASAR imaging of marine banded slicks on the sea surface were carried out in the coastal zone of the Black Sea in 2008-09 and were aimed to study the relation between slicks and the structure of marine currents. Measurements of the current velocity profiles were performed from a motor boat with a 600-kHz acoustic Doppler current meter (ADCP). Samples of surfactant films inside/outside slick bands were collected using a net method, and the films were characterized when studying in laboratory the action of collected films on characteristics of gravity-capillary waves. It is obtained that the banded slicks are characterized by accumulation of surfactants, and are oriented along the coastal currents and approximately along the coastline. The slick bands in accordance with theory are located in the areas of convergency of current velocity in the upper water layer, these areas are connected to variations of the current velocity profiles due to the bottom topography structure (the bottom slope). This work was supported by INTAS (Project MOPED) the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (Projects 08-05-00634, 07-05-00125, 08-05-97011) and RAS (Programs “Radiophysics”, “The World Ocean”).