Submesoscale dispersion in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill

We report here on results obtained from the largest upper-ocean dispersion field program conducted to date. The observations provided, for the first time to our knowledge, an accurate and nearly simultaneous description of the ocean surface velocity field on spatial scales ranging from 100 m to 100 km. We show conclusively that ocean flows contain significant energy at scales below 10 km and that their fluctuations dictate the initial spread of tracer/pollutant clouds. Neither state-of-the art operational models nor satellite altimeters capture the flows needed for accurately estimating the dispersion of surface particles.