Lagrangian particles used to model Karenia brevis blooms in the northern Gulf of Mexico during fall 2007 and 2015

The 2015 Karenia brevis bloom was compared to the 2007 Florida Panhandle Karenia brevis bloom, which showed a westward advection pattern, but did not intensify along the Mississippi coast. Two different regional applications of NCOM-Navy Coastal Ocean Model (1-km resolution NCOM-GoM/Gulf of Mexico and 6-km resolution NCOM-IASNFS/Intra Americas Sea Nowcast Forecast System) were used to understand the circulation and transport pathways. A built-in particle trace function in IDL™ (Interactive Data Language) was used to track the passive movement of particles released inside the delineation of the first satellite bloom observation of each year (17 September 2007, 23 September 2015). Particles were allowed to move until the last satellite observation of the bloom (17 November 2007, 19 December 2015). A second set of particles was released when the bloom was near Alabama (6 October 2007, 12 November 2015). All particles were released at 2-m depth to avoid instability in surface current vectors. The particles were tracked in two-dimensions without vertical advection or diffusion. This dataset is in support of the publication: Soto, I. M., Cambazoglu, M. K., Boyette, A. D., Broussard, K., Sheehan, D., Howden, S. D., Shiller, A. M., Dzwonkowski, B., Hode, L., Fitzpatrick, P. J., Arnone, R. A., Mickle, P. F., & Cressman, K. (2018). Advection of Karenia brevis blooms from the Florida Panhandle towards Mississippi coastal waters. Harmful Algae, 72, 46–64. doi:10.1016/j.hal.2017.12.008