About

Scott Socolofsky is the DLEB 309I J. Walter “Deak” Porter ’22 and James W. “Bud” Porter ‘51 Chair Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering. He is an affiliated faculty member of the Ocean Engineering Research Laboratory. His research focuses on environmental fluid mechanics, specifically in areas such as multi-phase flow, lake aeration, direct ocean carbon sequestration, dynamics of subsea oil spills, shallow flow stability, and mixing at tidal inlets. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001. His work involves the study and development of numerical methods in environmental fluid mechanics, contributing to a deeper understanding of complex fluid dynamics phenomena in natural and engineered systems.

Research topics

• Geology
• Computer Science
• Mechanics
• Physics
• Environmental science
• Petrology
• Geomorphology
• Environmental resource management
• Oceanography
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Business
• Petroleum engineering
• Meteorology
• Operations research
• Thermodynamics
• Environmental protection
• Geophysics
• Environmental engineering
• Environmental planning

Selected publications

• Deep-Ocean Sequestration of Excess Produced Gas to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Offshore Flaring

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2026-01-14

  article

  Many offshore petroleum platforms employ flaring (open combustion) to dispose of excess produced gas, thereby emitting greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We investigate deep-ocean sequestration of excess produced gas, named Seawater Injection of Natural Gas (SWING), to mitigate routine flaring at deepwater platforms. We evaluate 435 SWING scenarios using well-validated models of pipe transport, multiphase plume dynamics, gas/liquid transitions, and aqueous dissolution of natural gas bubbles and liquid condensate droplets. We identify SWING scenarios that entrap the produced gas in the deep ocean, where it would rapidly biodegrade and subsequently ventilate to the atmosphere as CO2 over decades to centuries. For example, a simulated injection of 10 MMSCFD (million standard ft3 d–1) of heavy produced gas at 1000 m depth yields dissolution of 95% of the injected hydrocarbon mass at ≥500 m depth, including 100% of the methane, assuming a median bubble diameter of 2 mm after jet breakup. Compared to flaring, this SWING scenario reduces CO2-equivalent emissions to the atmosphere by 260 kilotons year–1, representing a ≥10-fold decrease, analogous to removing CO2 emissions from 57,000 US passenger vehicles. This scenario reduces contributions of dissolved inorganic carbon to the surface ocean by ≥6-fold, mitigating this input to surface ocean acidification.

  PublisherDOI

• TGLO Establish Historical Long-term Wetland Boundary Evolution Through Satellite Imagery

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-20

  datasetOpen access

  This dataset includes wetland erosion rates for West Galveston, Matagorda, and San Antonio Bay. Long-term trends in wetland boundary changes are estimated using Landsat satellite imagery. Sections of the wetland experiencing the highest rates of erosion will be further investigated through CubeSat satellite observations. The format of the data is summarized as follows (1) Landsat-based wetland evolution results from 1984 to 2020 The Annual and seasonal water occurrence (in gif format) The wetland change map (in TIF format) (2) CubeSat-based wetland evolution results from 2009 to 2020 Water occurrence maps from 2009 to 2021 for the RapidEye-based bi-annual results (FSX-occurrence-yyy1-yyy2.tif) and the PlanetScope-based annual results (FSX-occurrence-yyy1.tif), where yyyy represents the given year. The legend image is 'occurrence-cbar.jpg.' Erosion maps based on the difference between water occurrence mapping in 2009 and 2021: ('FSX-occurrence-diff-2021-2009.tif'). The legend is 'occurrence-diff-cbar.jpg.' The 0.2-meter bed counter line images based on the water occurrence maps and the tide elevation threshold from 2017 to 2021: (FSX-bed-yyy1.tif). Again, yyy1 represents the given year. The legend is 'color-bed.jpg The difference between the beds in the 0.2-meter bed counter line images in 2017 and 2021 at FS-1, FS-2, FS-3, and FS-4: (FSX-bed-diff-2021-2017.tif). The legend is 'color-bed-dif.jpg.' (3) Analysis of wetland boundary evolution and erosion rate (data format in ArcGIS shapefile) Landsat-based wetland loss rate from 1984 to 2020 Landsat-based coastlines in 1984, 2000, 2010, and 2020 (4) Ratio of Sediment Erosion Rate to Sea-Level Rise (data format in ArcGIS shapefile) CubeSat-based wetland loss rate from 1984 to 2020 CubeSat-based bed erosion rate from 1984 to 2020 Sedimentary deficit: ratio of sediment erosion rate to sea-level rise rate

  PublisherDOI

• Long-Range Transport of Oil by Marine Plastic Debris: Evidence from an 8500 km Journey

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2026-01-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Weathering processes typically restrict the distance spilled oil travels to a few hundred kilometers in the ocean. Leveraging oiled marine debris as "drifters of opportunity", we tested the hypothesis of the unprecedented long-range (thousands of kilometers) transequatorial transport of oil adhered to marine debris by surface currents. Dispersion modeling backed by historical drift bottle experiments supported the plausibility for this hypothesis, and molecular forensics provided the definitive evidence proving it. Oil carried by marine debris arriving at Palm Beach, Florida in 2020 matched oil from the 2019 Brazil mystery oil spill, having traveled ∼8500 km in ∼240 days. We demonstrate an additive contaminant effect whereby plastic pollution facilitates the long-range transport of oil pollution. These findings underscore that regional inputs into the global ocean can have transboundary impacts.

  PublisherDOI

• OBSERVATION OF TIDAL EXCHANGE DYNAMICS FROM SURFACE CURRENT MEASUREMENTS USING UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

  Coastal Engineering Proceedings · 2025-05-29

  articleOpen access

  Coastal transport processes are fundamental to oceanic biogeochemical cycles, sediment dynamics, and pollution management. Surface-associated material transport in coastal settings, including the fate of floating marine contaminants such as oil spills and harmful algal blooms, is heavily controlled by ocean surface currents, together with wave action. During tidal exchange, ocean currents are one of the key parameters that affect whether these surface pollutants may be transported in or out of the bay and estuary through tidal inlets. Thus, practical measurements of ocean surface currents are important to predict many coastal transport processes effectively. However, observation of these transport processes requires large-scale current mapping in the spatial domain to fully resolve the governing mechanisms. In the present study, we utilize an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) wave-based current mapping technique introduced by Streßer et al., 2017 to visualize the flow structures of the tidal exchange through the Galveston Bay inlets, TX, in high spatial resolution, using a consumer-grade UAS for imaging the ocean surface.

  PublisherDOI

• Long-range transport of oil by marine plastic debris: Evidence from an 8,500 km journey

  ChemRxiv · 2025-06-22 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Weathering processes typically restrict the distance spilled oil travels in the ocean to a few hundred kilometers. Leveraging oiled marine debris as “drifters of opportunity”, we tested the hypothesis of the unprecedented long-range (thousands of kilometers) transequatorial transport of oil adhered to marine debris by surface currents. Physical oceanographic modeling provided the plausibility for this hypothesis, and molecular forensics provided the definitive evidence supporting it. Oil carried by marine debris arriving at Palm Beach, Florida in 2020 matched oil from the 2019 Brazil mystery oil spill, having traveled ~8,500 km in ~240 days. We demonstrate an additive contaminant effect whereby plastic pollution facilitates the long-range transport of oil pollution. These findings underscore that regional inputs into the global ocean can have transboundary impacts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Modeling the Dissolution and Transport of Bubbles Emitted From Hydrocarbon Seeps Within the Hydrate Stability Zone of the Oceans

  Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans · 2025-03-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Quantifying the vertical distribution of dissolved gases entering the oceans from natural seeps is important to understand biogeochemical cycling of these gases and to constrain their emissions to the atmosphere. The fate and transport of gas bubbles in seawater depend on their rise velocity and their rate of mass exchange with ambient water. In the deep ocean, clathrate hydrates may form as skins on bubbles of natural gases. Although it is known that hydrate skins reduce mass transfer rates, it is unclear how quickly they form and to what extent they may slow mass transfer. In this study, we develop an empirical equation to predict the time scale for hydrates to affect mass transfer, and we apply a Lagrangian particle numerical model to predict the height of rise of natural seep bubbles observed in echo sounder data. We calibrate an equation for hydrate transition time by comparing to field observations in Rehder et al. (2009, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001gl013966 ), and we validate to other field and laboratory observations. We apply the model to predict the rise heights of bubbles emitted from natural seeps. When comparing to acoustic data, we show that bubbles become acoustically transparent when their sizes fall below a critical size near the resonant frequency of the insonified bubble. Using this insight, our model predicts the rise heights observed in acoustic data of seven natural seeps spanning source depths from 890 to 2,890 m with an of 0.98, bias of 41 m, and absolute relative percentage error of 4.7%.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparison of Surface Current Measurement Techniques and Observations of Tidal Inlet Dynamics Using Unmanned Aerial Systems

  Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology · 2025-09-18

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Understanding mixing dynamics through barrier island inlets requires large-scale observations of tidal exchange near the bay–ocean boundary, including reliable measurements of surface currents. In this paper, we evaluate the ocean surface currents at Galveston Bay inlet and Freeport Harbor inlet, Texas, from a video sequence of surface waves collected from a small, unmanned aerial system (UAS). Surface current measurements from three different measurement techniques (UAS wave-based current mapping, particle image velocimetry, and optical flow) were compared with and without the presence of artificial floating tracer particles. When used, tracer particles of packaging peanuts were released using a payload-capable UAS platform. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and optical flow methods estimated coherent surface currents consistent with the motion of uniform, well-distributed seeding particles drifting upon the spectral surface waves and the near-surface currents. Without seeding particles, the UAS wave-based current mapping technique captured the near-surface currents at tidal inlets. The UAS wave-based current mapping technique (Streßer et al.), which does not require particle seeding, is further validated using in situ measurements of current velocity from an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). The UAS wave-based surface current measurements agreed with the ADCP measurements within a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.06 m s −1 and 16° in magnitude and direction, respectively, and a normalized RMSE (NRMSE) of 0.26 in magnitude. The surface currents near the jetty at Galveston Bay inlet were visualized with the resulting UAS wave-based current maps.

  PublisherDOI

• High-Resolution Surface Current Mapping from UAS Video: A Continuous Flight Mission Approach

  2025-12-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Coastal surface currents influence processes like pollutant transport, sediment resuspension, and navigation safety, presenting the need for high-resolution monitoring tools for informed decision-making. We present a remote sensing approach based on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that estimates surface currents using Doppler analysis of video collected from a continuous UAS flight transect over Freeport Harbor, Texas. This work extends the open-source MATLAB software CopterCurrents, originally developed for UAS videos collected by hovering at fixed station points (Streßer et al., 2017), to linear flights in which the continuous videos are spatially segmented into equivalent hovering videos. The segmentation is achieved by tracking and analyzing the motion of subwindows (240×240 pixels each) over the fixed ocean surface, each representing approximately 10×10 m 2 . Instead of relying on a fixed hover, each subwindow is tracked as it moves through the camera’s field of view during flight. For subwindows with sufficient temporal overlap (approximately 30 s duration, which is greater than 248 frames in this study), the mean 2D surface velocity field is extracted using three-dimensional fast Fourier transform and Doppler fitting to the linear, deepwater dispersion relation for surface waves (Streßer et al., 2017). Subwindow positions are geo-referenced in UTM coordinates based on UAS flight logs. To remove spurious current vectors, a signal-to-noise ratio threshold was applied to filter out noisy data, along with an upper velocity limit. We apply this method to a 10-minute UAS mission over Freeport Harbor, covering approximately 900 m and producing over 1000 geo-located subwindow measurements. The final output is a spatially continuous current map overlaid on satellite imagery, visualized through a vector field and a current-speed heatmap. This approach enables high-resolution current estimation without the need for hovering, thereby supporting efficient deployments for estuarine dynamics, rapid-response coastal monitoring, and operational nearshore oceanography. References Streßer, M., Carrasco, R., & Horstmann, J. (2017). Video-Based Estimation of Surface Currents Using a Low-Cost Quadcopter. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 14(11), 2027–2031. https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2017.2749120

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Characterization of Tidal Inlet Exchange Flows Using Satellite Imagery

  Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans · 2025-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract We present a satellite‐based classification scheme for the main characteristics of large‐scale starting jets interacting with coastal currents at Galveston Bay inlet, Texas, using satellite imagery from Sentinel‐2 and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The Sentinel‐2 satellite image analysis identifies two types of tidal starting‐jet vortex structures: a shallow single or dipole vortex. The type of starting‐jet vortex that forms depends on the propagation path of the tidal jet, given by the angle between the jet and inlet axis, and the tidal dynamics, summarized by an inlet Strouhal number. We show a correlation between these metrics that predicts when the dynamics of vortex formation is dominantly governed by the offshore currents, causing a single‐vortex, or the ebbing fluid flow, forming a vortex dipole. By comparing the deflection angle of the tidal jets with local wind observations, we deduce that along‐shore currents are the dominant mechanism responsible for the jet deflection and vortex types. Validation of the classification scheme using MODIS satellite images reported up to 94% agreement between the classification scheme and the observed flow type. Comparison of the Sentinel‐2 satellite images with empirical equations from laboratory experiments showed good agreement for vortex spin‐up time and the diameter of the vortex core.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Simulation of subsurface mechanical dispersion (SSMD) of oil by a water jet

  Marine Pollution Bulletin · 2025-02-04 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: The Role of Turbulence, Coherent Structures, and Intermittency for Controlling Transport in Multiphase Plumes in the Environment

  NSF · $472k · 2004–2011

• RAPID: Collaborative Research: Multiscale plume modeling of the Deepwater Horizon oil-well blowout for environmental impact assessment and mitigation

  NSF · $37k · 2010–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Kuang‐An Chang

  Texas A&M University

  31 shared

• E. Eric Adams

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  29 shared

• Michel C. Boufadel

  New Jersey Institute of Technology

  25 shared

• Jonas Gros

  Ferarihs

  19 shared

• Soo Bum Bae

  Texas A&M University

  18 shared

• Jin Young Kim

  Korea Basic Science Institute

  16 shared

• Huilin Gao

  Texas A&M University

  16 shared

• Yao Li

  Southwest University

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2001