?The U.S. Minerals Management Service has awarded a $5.5-million contract to Science Applications International Corp. to conduct a major study of the Gulf of Mexico loop current.?


The loop current, which forms the upstream portion of the Gulf stream, is the Gulf’s principal ocean current, which transports energy, mass, heat, momentum and salt from the eastern to the western Gulf.


The five-year study will focus on learning more about the dynamics of the loop current in the eastern Gulf through observations and numerical modeling. The findings will provide information on how energetic currents may interrupt oil production and change or affect the movement of oil spills, including natural seeps from the ocean floor.


“We are very excited to have initiated this ground-breaking study,” says MMS director Randall Luthi, adding that the MMS has spent $800 million during the past 25 years on environmental studies.


Nine moorings, or anchored lines, will be placed in the Gulf for about 30 months. The instruments attached to the moorings will measure current strength, water temperature and salinity.


Scientists from the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab will join Science Applications to study the thermal structure of the loop current and hope to use this data to more accurately forecast the intensification of hurricanes entering the Gulf.?


In addition, scientists from Princeton University, the University?of Rhode Island?and the University?of Colorado?are part of the Science Applications team to carry out the state-of-the-art modeling, deep-ocean-circulation field observations and the remote-sensing observations.


Luthi says that all study findings will be submitted to the National Oceanographic Data Center?and made available to other agencies and research groups and to industry, including the National Hurricane Center, the U.S. Navy and the oil and gas industry.

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