BOEMRE study eyes climate impacts on Arctic oil spill behavior

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement released a new study evaluating ways climate change may affect environmental conditions might influence oil spill trajectory analysis in the Arctic. It recommends that BOEMRE organize a data archive for atmospheric, sea ice, and oceanic conditions in the US Arctic, BOEMRE said Aug. 29.

It said other recommendations included conducting analyses to determine how climate variability might change the path of a hypothetical Arctic spill, and running multiple hindcast models over 5 years of statistics to see the impacts of different models on a hypothetical spill’s movement.

BOEMRE uses hindcasts to analyze oil spill trajectories when making decisions about leasing sales as well as in other National Environmental Policy Act documents, BOEMRE said. It provided funding for Scientific Applications International Corp. to conduct the study, which is available online.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].