Jan Hafner, Nikolai Maximenko and Peter Niiler † jhafner@hawaii, maximenk@hawaii

1. SCUD – ocean surface current product in aid to pelagic marine debris studies. Jan Hafner, Nikolai Maximenko and Peter Niiler† jhafner@hawaii.edu, maximenk@hawaii.edu IPRC/SOEST University of Hawaii Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD

2. SCUD - Surface CUrrents from Diagnostic model QSCAT ocean surface wind AVISO sea level SCUD Ocean surface currents Starting 01 AUG 1999 ending 18 NOV 2009 Daily maps of ocean surface currents on ¼ deg. lon/lat grid

3. Drifter Data AOML – 8058 drifters Drifters' Trajectories Drifters = marine debris SCUD model

4. Where the marine debris goes? How it gets there ? Numerical Experiment: SCUD currents applied on ocean tracers released daily from coast and weighted by coastal population count

5. Animation of tracer transport by SCUD currents

7. 14FEB2000 03APRIL2000

8. SCUD model application on marine debris What model can do: zones of convergence structure of the patches trajectories = pathways What model cannot do: prediction vertical structure of marine debris coastal processes – emission and deposition of marine debris

9. Priority Actions Actions to reduce marine debris from 2011-2021. 1. operational SCUD product requires QSCAT to be replaced with ASCAT winds 2. global inventory of marine debris sources and sinks in the ocean and onshore is needed 3. effect of vertical mixing on floating debris needs to be included in the model 4. coastal dynamical processes, esp. high frequency and debris deposition processes, need to be considered in the model 5. validation of SCUD model by in situ data needed