File:Environmental impact on the Northern Persian Gulf- a mine drift and chemical spill study centered on Iraq's oil terminals using Navy's ocean-atmospheric physical and chemical models (IA environmentalimp109453569).pdf

An attack on, or chemical spill near, Iraq's oil terminals could have disastrous effects on Iraq's economy. The impacts from a drifting mine or chemical spill are highly dependent on environmental conditions that can either adversely effect continued operations or hinder the safety of personnel. Operation Planners' ability to create legitimate scenarios to train and combat these situations is key to continued safe operations of the terminals. To accomplish this, planners must understand the impacts of using climatology versus near real-time data in the evaluation of the scenarios. The near real-time environmental data were provided by the Navy's ocean-atmospheric operations models. The study examines the benefit of knowing the environment to understand their impacts to operations in the northern Persian Gulf. Three different scenarios were examined to understand the impact to Oil Terminal operations in the event of drifting mines or a chemical spill. The chemical spill was examined from the outlook of a major collision with a barge that spilled either Liquidfied Ammonia or Mustard Gas. The Ammonia scenario was further analyzed in the atmosphere. This study demonstrates the impact that near real-time environmental conditions can have over climatological data for Operational Planners.

Subjects: Chemical spills; Meteorology; Oceanography; SWAFS; currents; COMAPS; surface winds; Mine Warfare; Chemical Spill; Ammonia; Mustard Gas; CHEMMAPTM; HPAC; Prediction; Chemical Propagation; Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF); complex EOF; Iraq; Oil Terminal