Strengthening maritime emergency response capabilities: Our Opendrift workshop for Côte d’Ivoire national meteorological service in Abidjan (Africa)

SODEXAM’s meteorological service team with their certificate of workshop completion.

Example of dispersion following release near Abidjan Port entrance in high-resolution hydrodynamic flows and high-resolution winds (white triangle shows the hydrodynamic model mesh). The animation was produced using data visualization tools developed at Calypso Science to make the model outputs easier to interpret and apply operationally.

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A workshop on ocean dispersion modelling

This project builds on the ongoing technical exchanges and cooperation between Météo-France International (MFI) and SODEXAM, Côte d’Ivoire’s national meteorological service. Within this framework, the Calypso Science team had the opportunity of delivering a five-day workshop on oceanic dispersion modelling to the SODEXAM team in Abidjan last month. The training focused on two key operational applications: search and rescue (SAR) operations at sea and marine pollution response (oil spills).

Supporting national maritime safety

We worked with the team at SODEXAM, Côte d’Ivoire's national meteorological service, to strengthen their capacity to address maritime risks along their coastline. This initiative came together through a collaborative effort between MeteoFrance International, Calypso Science, and WeathernCo, bringing together expertise in high-resolution hydrodynamic, wave and atmospheric modelling and oceanic dispersion modelling systems.

The workshop focused on the use of OpenDrift, an open-source, Python-based oceanic dispersion modelling system developed by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. OpenDrift is used operationally for maritime emergency response across Norway and has become widely adopted by research teams worldwide studying oceanic transport and dispersion of pollutants such as oil, plastic, chemical, debris, fish larvae and water masses, with numerous peer-reviewed publications demonstrating its capabilities.

We'd like to acknowledge the Norwegian Meteorological Institute for making Opendrift freely available and for their excellent community support. Their commitment to open-source development made this knowledge transfer possible.

What we covered

The workshop began with foundational concepts in Lagrangian dispersion modelling before exploring the wide range of input data that Opendrift can work with—from ocean current models like MERCATOR, SCHISM, and ROMS, wave models like SWAN, WW3, to atmospheric models including ERA5, ECMWF, GFS, ARPEGE, AROME, ICON, and WRF custom domains. We examined how different forcing data affects prediction accuracy and reliability.

We then focused on two specialized modules: the oil spill module, built on theoretical and empirical guidance from NOAA, and the SAR module developed from a database of windage characteristics of numerous sea objects (person-in-water, raft, boat etc..) developed by the US Coast Guard. The practical component included case studies specific to Côte d’Ivoire's coastal waters and inland areas, for which we implemented a high-resolution SCHISM hydrodynamic domain to be used in combination with the high-resolution WRF wind models. We used post-processing and data visualization tools developed at Calypso Science to make the model outputs easier to interpret and apply operationally (see animation).

Looking ahead

The week spent working with the SODEXAM team was very rewarding. Watching the tools come together in their operational context and knowing these dispersion modelling capabilities are now part of their maritime emergency response toolkit—that's what makes collaborative projects like this meaningful.

Calypso Science continues to support SODEXAM through ongoing work to enhance their wave and hydrodynamic forecasting capabilities, ensuring these align with their existing high-resolution wind forecast data for both routine operations and emergency response situations. We're also available for continued support in oceanic dispersion modelling as they continue developing their expertise.

Interested in similar training ?

We'd be pleased to run similar workshops for other meteorological services or agencies looking to develop capabilities in oceanic dispersion modelling. If your organization could benefit from training in oil spill response, SAR operations, or other maritime risk applications.

Please get in touch. We're here to help build capacity where it's needed.