Design of surface drifter for the oil spill monitoring

Aim of the paper is to develop and present a stategy of oil spill experiments in the coastal zone based on the use of oil spill drifters. The aim is achived by the following steps, first a review is presented organized in two sections: -a brief presentation of the phenomena related to the processing of oil spill in the sea; - a review of surface drifters. The past experience and review provides the basis for the choice/design of a proper drifter for the design of the best prototype, achived by working on the shape, the dimensions, the ballast, the equipment and materiel. For the project planning decisions have to be taken regarding the sampling strategy, the data acquisition and transmission the buoy deploy position, the number of drifter in the same cluster, the duration of the experiment and the results analysis. The design of the oil spill drifter is twofold, to calibrate and validate oil spill models and to propose to the scientific community a sort of protocol for the oil spill experiments, and to build proper drifter to be launched in case of accidents for the oil spill monitoring.