๐Ocean Modeling
Overview of the Ocean Modeling department and original vision
Running Tide's Ocean Modeling team was responsible for optimizing and quantifying carbon removal interventions by developing, maintaining, and tuning computational models. By studying ocean, atmospheric, and biogeochemical dynamics in deployment regions, we were able to think creatively about intervention designs and support our operations teams through planning, optimization, and efficacy evaluation.
We were tasked with:
Quantifying the effectiveness of CDR activity using models tuned with real-world data
Proposing and optimizing intervention strategies for biomass sinking and ocean alkalinity enhancement
Characterizing the carrying capacity of the ocean, locally and globally, for different intervention types
During the terrestrial biomass sinking deployments out of Iceland in 2023, we focused on understanding where the plume of deployed material drifted, tracking when it sank, and estimating the terminal distribution of material on the seafloor. Underpinning most of this work were trajectory models driven with ocean current and windage data and data collected from our in-situ buoys.
In the background, we prepared for future ocean alkalinity enhancement, macroalgae, and scaled-up terrestrial biomass sinking deployments. The dynamics of ocean mixing, air-sea flux, nutrient availability and cycling, etc. are impractical or impossible to measure directly. Thus, we explored and developed various models to build our knowledge of these processes and direct the future allocation of resources towards critical monitoring priorities.
We worked with external research institutions to build oceanographic models, too. In the assessment of new regions for deployment expansion, we had an effective collaboration with local scientists in Norway to model environmental impacts of new biomass sinking deployments. Together, we set reasonable guidelines for maximum initial deployment activity, which set a precedent for assessing local impacts with local scientists and regional models.
Ocean Modeling was born out of a grand vision for a software and research platform called Ocean Mind, which would gather and aggregate data and provide advanced modeling tools to design, test, simulate, quantify, and iteratively improve mCDR.
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