Temperature and salinity effects in modeling the trajectory of the 2011 Penglai 19-3 oil spill

In this paper, two hydrodynamic models were developed using Delft3D and were then applied to the 2011 Penglai 19-3 accident in the Chinese Bohai Sea. One model includes constant temperature and salinity, while the other model utilizes variable temperature and salinity. The two models both simulate currents fields in the Bohai Sea and utilize wind data from the National Meteorological Service of Germany (DWD) to calculate the drift of spilled oil. The hydrodynamic simulation results are consistent with the results of previous studies. We subsequently predict the surface oil trajectories of the Penglai 19-3 oil spill based on the two models, respectively. Comparing the oil-spill simulation results with remote sensing information, we show that the model with variable temperature and salinity exhibits a better fit with the actual observations. Temperature and salinity were two important factors that influenced the movement of spilled oil on the sea surface. According to the result of the variable thermohaline model, most of the oil particles spread northwest and a small portion spreads southeast to the Chinese Bohai Strait. We conclude that density currents should be considered in future oil-spill studies to generate more realistic results.