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Oil Pollution in the Baltic Sea pp 155–183Cite as

Seatrack Web: The HELCOM Tool for Oil Spill Prediction and Identification of Illegal Polluters

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Part of the book series: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry ((HEC,volume 27))

Abstract

Seatrack Web is an online forecasting and hindcasting system for calculating the fate of oil spills at sea developed jointly by SMHI and DaMSA. The system uses forecasted wind and current fields to simulate the drift of particles representing oil or other substances in three dimensions. Seatrack Web has been implemented for several areas, one of which encompasses the HELCOM area (the Baltic Sea) and parts of the North Sea. HELCOM Seatrack Web is fully operational and available 24/7 for authorities and organizations that have been granted login access. The system is accessed via a Java client/server application with a GIS-based user-friendly graphical interface. A number of different oils are handled by the system, from gasoline to asphalt. The drift model includes state-of-the-art oil weathering algorithms for calculating evaporation and emulsification of these oils. The results of a drift simulation include particle tracks, changes in the oil properties and the overall fate of a spill.

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References

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of HELCOM, the Swedish Coast Guard, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and the Finnish Environment Institute, as well as important contributions from the many users of Seatrack Web.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, 601 76, Norrköping, Sweden

    Cecilia Ambjörn & Bertil Håkansson

  2. DHI Sweden, Kyrkogatan 3, 222 22, Lund, Sweden

    Olof Liungman

  3. Danish Maritime Safety Administration, 1919, 1023, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Johan Mattsson

Authors
  1. Cecilia Ambjörn
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  2. Olof Liungman
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  3. Johan Mattsson
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  4. Bertil Håkansson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cecilia Ambjörn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Pr. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    Andrey G. Kostianoy

  2. , Russian Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str. 84 /32, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    Olga Yu Lavrova

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ambjörn, C., Liungman, O., Mattsson, J., Håkansson, B. (2011). Seatrack Web: The HELCOM Tool for Oil Spill Prediction and Identification of Illegal Polluters. In: Kostianoy, A., Lavrova, O. (eds) Oil Pollution in the Baltic Sea. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 27. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2011_120

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