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| CARTHE | |
|---|---|
| Name | CARTHE |
| Full name | Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment |
| Established | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Miami, Florida |
| Fields | Oceanography; Physical Oceanography; Chemical Oceanography; Environmental Science |
| Lead institution | University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science |
CARTHE The Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment is an interdisciplinary research consortium focused on Lagrangian transport, plume dynamics, and pollutant dispersion in coastal and open-ocean settings. CARTHE integrates personnel and resources from universities, national laboratories, and private partners to study processes governing tracer advection, mixing, and fate following hydrocarbon releases and other contaminant events. The consortium couples observational campaigns, numerical modeling, and instrument development to inform response strategies for environmental incidents and to advance knowledge in ocean physics and chemistry.
CARTHE brings together investigators from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Florida International University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other institutions to address transport questions relevant to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, coastal hazards, and ecosystem impacts. The consortium employs techniques from physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, and marine ecology to study dispersion processes across scales ranging from submesoscale filaments to basin-scale currents such as the Gulf Stream. CARTHE emphasizes Lagrangian frameworks and uses drifters, autonomous vehicles, and remote sensing assets to generate datasets for assimilation into models like the Regional Ocean Modeling System and other circulation models.
CARTHE was initiated in response to the methodological and operational challenges highlighted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and formally organized in the early 2010s with support from federal agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. Early collaborations included projects with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Founding and contributing investigators came from programs associated with the University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Texas A&M University among others, building an interinstitutional network to develop novel observational platforms and unified analysis frameworks for transport problems.
CARTHE's program portfolio includes field campaigns, laboratory experiments, and synthesis studies. Major efforts have included basin-scale drifter deployments, targeted coastal surveys during extreme events, and the development of field trials for novel autonomous platforms. Projects have often been coordinated with initiatives like the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative efforts on oil weathering, the Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy programs, and regional observational systems such as the Integrated Ocean Observing System. CARTHE-supported campaigns have provided datasets for tracer release experiments, Lagrangian coherent structures studies, and particle tracking validation for operational forecasting frameworks used by agencies including NOAA.
CARTHE pioneered use of dense arrays of surface drifters, including cost-reduced GPS-tracked designs, distributed in patterns to resolve mesoscale and submesoscale dispersion. Instrumentation portfolios include GPS drifters, GPS-guided autonomous surface vehicles, gliders with chemical sensors, towed undulating profilers, and acoustic Doppler current profilers sourced from partners like the Scripps Institution of Oceanography instrument teams and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution fleet. CARTHE integrates remote sensing from platforms such as MODIS and Sentinel satellites with in situ arrays to map sea-surface temperature, chlorophyll, and slick extents. Analytical methods leverage Lagrangian coherent structures diagnostics, finite-time Lyapunov exponents, and ensemble particle-tracking schemes implemented in modeling environments tied to the Regional Ocean Modeling System and coupled atmospheric models.
CARTHE has quantified scale-dependent dispersion regimes in the coastal ocean, demonstrated the importance of submesoscale processes on pollutant patch evolution, and provided validation datasets for improving operational trajectory forecasts used during incident response. Results have clarified the role of frontal dynamics, river plumes, and wind-driven shear on surface tracer stirring, contributing to reinterpretations of dispersion rates invoked in studies of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other releases. CARTHE outcomes have influenced best-practice recommendations for drifter design and deployment patterns, informed parameterizations in circulation models, and produced open-access datasets that have been used by investigators affiliated with institutions such as Columbia University and Princeton University.
CARTHE operates through partnerships with federal agencies, academic consortia, and private-sector stakeholders. Collaborators include NOAA, the National Science Foundation, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and university centers such as the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Industry and non-governmental organizations engaged with CARTHE span energy companies, response contractors, and ocean technology firms that have participated in instrument testing and operational demonstration exercises. International links have been fostered with groups at University of Southampton, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and European research institutes engaging on Lagrangian transport and oil-spill science.
CARTHE supports graduate and postdoctoral training programs, summer schools, and hands-on cruises designed to train early-career researchers in Lagrangian methods, observational techniques, and operational modeling. Outreach efforts include public lectures, K–12 engagement initiatives organized with university partners, and data-sharing portals that enable reuse by educators and researchers from institutions such as Florida International University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The consortium has produced curricular materials and workshops to transfer techniques for drifter construction, deployment strategies, and data analysis to stakeholders involved in environmental response and coastal management.
Category:Oceanographic organizations