Simulated trajectories of polyester microfibers in the Salish Sea using offline Lagrangian particle tracking

This dataset contains the output of offline Lagrangian simulations modeling the movement and fate of polyester microfibers (MF) released in the Salish Sea. We used the Parcels framework and circulation fields from the SalishSeaCast regional ocean model. Simulations were conducted between January and October 2023 to investigate how microplastic pollutants such as microfibers shed from textiles, are transported, retained, or removed in a semi-enclosed estuarine environment. We provide the model outputs as monthly NetCDF files representing different degradation rates and microfiber scenarios described in the associated publication. Two additional files (`Yearly_SoG_220150101_1n_20160126_1n.nc` and `Yearly_SoG20160101_1n_20161226_1n.nc`) correspond to year-long simulations used to study microfiber beaching processes in the Strait of Georgia. Each simulation tracks the 3D position of virtual microfiber particles over time. Output variables include particle status (e.g., in water column, beached, sunk), vertical displacement components (buoyancy, advection, mixing), and location coordinates (latitude, longitude, depth). We implemented the simulations in Python 3.11 using Parcels 2.4 and xarray, and rely on the hydrodynamic conditions provided by SalishSeaCast hindcast data from 2019.