Modeling the drift of Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD): An application of high computing simulation and data assimilation

We conducted drift simulations of tsunami debris f1ushed out from the Tohoku district, Japan into the North Pacific in the wake of the catastrophic tsunami on March 11, 2011 to monitor and forecast the drift path over the entire North Pacific. The results showed that the tsunami debris was first transported eastward by both the intense Kuroshio Extension and westerly winds, spreading northward and southward under the inf1uence of both an energetic ocean eddy and a storm track over the ocean. Tsunami debris with larger windage was transported over the North Pacific by ocean surface winds rather than ocean currents and arrived at the west coast of North America in the fall of 2011.