The role of the unsteady surface wave‐driven Ekman–Stokes flow in the accumulation of floating marine litter

Recently, a number of authors have used global particle tracking simulations to identify the effect that different surface currents on marine litter accumulation, including role waves through Stokes drift. However, in upper-ocean boundary layer and presence Coriolis force, wave-driven Eulerian flow forms must be superimposed onto drift order obtain correct Lagrangian velocity. Taking into account both Coriolis–Stokes force wave stress, Higgins et al. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089189 derived an expression for this unsteady Eulerian-mean form convolution between so-called Ekman–Stokes kernel. In paper, we apply kernel generate 12-year hindcast current show its inclusion has significant distribution small floating litter, such as microplastics. Using simulations, find is sensitive value viscosity but generally opposes dispersive behavior drift, reducing amount cross-Equator transport polar regions, resulting closer agreement modeled observed microplastic distributions.