History

• 2006

  2006

  Development of the FLOAT model

• 2007

  April 2007

  First operational use of the model in the framework of the first "SuperCEPCO" experiment organised by RBINS-MUMM. At that time a model operator had to be contacted to launch the simulation and write a report that was sent back to the coast guard operator who requested the simulation. This process used to take one hour.

• 2008

  2008

  In the framework of the ESA project MarCoast, FLOAT was automatized in order to demonstrate the feasibility to compute a 5 days drift trajectories forward and backward in time of a satellite-detected oil spill in less than 30 minutes after the satellite acquisition time. During the close-out meeting of the project in Paris, this work was been qualified as a significant step forward in the development of GMES downstream application in support of maritime safety.

• 2009

  2009–2012

  FLOAT is the very first drift model coupled with the EMSA CleanSeaNet service in order to add drift informations to the satellite-detected oil spills reported by the European Maritime Safety Agency to the European coastguards. Similar services were developed by the University of Cyprus for the Mediterranean Sea and by the Swedish Meteorological Institute for the Baltic Sea.

  In parallel, a specific web interface for FLOAT has been developed for the Belgian coastguard operators. Thanks to this interface, coastguards operators could launch and visualize a drift forecast in less than one minute (instead of one hour previously).

• 2012

  2012–2015

  RBINS-MUMM released its new 3D oil drift and fate model OSERIT in September 2012. This new model quickly became RBINS' main drift model. However, FLOAT continued to be maintained and operated as a back-up service of the OSERIT service.

• 2015

  2015

  FLOAT web interface is upgraded and ported to the RBINS-OD Nature new scientific web sites and applications platform.