Corsica oil spill in October 2018: the CMCC delivered 5 pollution forecast bulletins

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The fact is well-known: on October 7, 2018, at 8:30 a.m., The Ulysse, a Tunisian passenger ship, struck the hull of the Cypriot container ship Virginia north of the island of Corsica. Estimated mass of the spill was 0.5–600 tons of heavy fuel oil.

After the oil spill incident, the CMCC Foundation started to collaborate with REMPEC (whose MAU – Mediterranean Assistance Unit has recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary).
The CMCC scientific division OPA – Ocean Predictions and Applications provided in particular 5 pollution forecast bulletins, that predicted the transport and fate of the oil spill.

The bulletins were based upon a combination of numerical modeling with monitoring data provided by REMPEC. The Lagrangian oil spill model MEDSLIK-II was repeatedly re-launched according to observations obtained by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission and French aircraft reports. Near-real-time information exchange between REMPEC and CMCC allowed a rather good prediction of coastline contamination event in French Riviera.

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