Gulfspill Version 2.0: a software package for oil spills in the Arabian Gulf

A software package is described for the prediction of the movement and fate of oil spills in the Arabian Gulf. The package is designed to run on a PC operating under Windows and has user-friendly graphical interfaces for model input and for examination of the output. The package contains several optional programs: a simple trajectory model, as well as models for large-scale spills that encompass a significant area of the water body and for smaller spills that remain localized in an arbitrarily small sub-region. The models are based on a three-dimensional hydrodynamical model of the Arabian Gulf that has been tested and calibrated to a high degree of accuracy. The fate of the oil encompasses the processes of evaporation, emulsification, dispersion by wave action into the water column, beaching on the coasts (and possible re-entry into the water body) and mechanical spreading. Examples are shown to illustrate typical input and output screens and to demonstrate the accuracy of the model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.