edu.ucar.opensky::articles:21335 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-25T16:04:32.734536 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71r6t5g https://doi.org/10.7266/N7610XQ6 https Related Dataset #1 Lagrangian Submesoscale Experiment (LASER) Lagrangian float Ocean convergence and the dispersion of flotsam 2018-02-06T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71r6t5g https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718453115 D'Asaro, E. A. author Shcherbina, A. Y. author Klymak, J. M. author Molemaker, J. author Novelli, G. author Guigand, C. M. author Haza, A. C. author Haus, B. K. author Ryan, E. H. author Jacobs, G. A. author Huntley, H. S. author Laxague, N. J. M. author Chen, S. author Judt, Falko author McWilliams, J. C. author Barkan, R. author Kirwan, A. D. author Poje, A. C. author Özgökmen, T. M. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Floating oil, plastics, and marine organisms are continually redistributed by ocean surface currents. Prediction of their resulting distribution on the surface is a fundamental, long-standing, and practically important problem. The dominant paradigm is dispersion within the dynamical context of a nondivergent flow: objects initially close together will on average spread apart but the area of surface patches of material does not change. Although this paradigm is likely valid at mesoscales, larger than 100 km in horizontal scale, recent theoretical studies of submesoscales (less than similar to 10 km) predict strong surface convergences and downwelling associated with horizontal density fronts and cyclonic vortices. Here we show that such structures can dramatically concentrate floating material. More than half of an array of similar to 200 surface drifters covering similar to 20 x 20 km(2) converged into a 60 x 60 m region within a week, a factor of more than 105 decrease in area, before slowly dispersing. As predicted, the convergence occurred at density fronts and with cyclonic vorticity. A zipperlike structure may play an important role. Cyclonic vorticity and vertical velocity reached 0.001 s(-1) and 0.01 ms(-1), respectively, which is much larger than usually inferred. This suggests a paradigm in which nearby objects form submesoscale clusters, and these clusters then spread apart. Together, these effects set both the overall extent and the finescale texture of a patch of floating material. Material concentrated at submesoscale convergences can create unique communities of organisms, amplify impacts of toxic material, and create opportunities to more efficiently recover such material. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation