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Comprehensive estimate of 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill

A measurement of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil slick thickness/volume with critical socio-economic implications has been reported by researchers from a range of academic, government and industry bodies

Date:
April 30, 2018
Source:
SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics
Summary:
Researchers announce that optical remote sensing observations may provide close estimates of relative oil thickness/volume for large oil slicks in the ocean captured by satellites.
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In an article published in SPIE's Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, researchers announce that optical remote sensing observations may provide close estimates of relative oil thickness/volume for large oil slicks in the ocean captured by satellites. This is a critical scientific advancement for monitoring large-scale oil spills using operational civilian satellites, according to Journal of Applied Remote Sensing associate editor, Weilin "Will" Hou, that will ultimately increase our ability to assess and understand the impact of oil spills on marine and coastal resources, as well as our ability to prepare appropriate responses for future spills.

The open-access article, "Remote Sensing Estimation of Surface Oil Volume During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout in the Gulf of Mexico: Scaling up AVIRIS Observation with MODIS Measurements," suggests that optical remote sensing observations from coarse-resolution satellite instruments can estimate the thickness and volume of large oil slicks in the vast ocean when some fine-resolution aircraft measurements are available: the combined measurements of two NASA satellite instruments (MODIS on Terra and Aqua) and one NASA airborne instrument (AVIRIS) resulted in maps that revealed surface oil volume, relative oil thickness, and probable distributions of the various thicknesses for the northern Gulf of Mexico.

"This research comes from a stellar team of scientists. It is the result of great collaborations amongst universities, government agencies and industry," says Hou. "The lead article author, Chuanmin Hu, is a top researcher on ocean monitoring and remote sensing; another author, Rebecca Green, is a well-known expert in the federal government when it comes to oil-spill monitoring and impact assessment. The work this team produced has the potential of very important environmental, economic, and social impact for us: the more accurately we can assess the volume of oil spills at synoptic scale, the better we can plan mitigation efforts for future spills, and the better we can assess how such spills affect our marine and coastal communities and environments, in order to best apply our resources."


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Materials provided by SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Rebecca Green, George Graettinger, Frank Muller-Karger, Mark Hess, Ian MacDonald, Oscar Garcia, Christopher Melton, Ira Leifer, Gregg A Swayze, Jamie Holmes, Lian Feng, Chuanmin Hu. Remote sensing estimation of surface oil volume during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico: scaling up AVIRIS observations with MODIS measurements. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 2018; 12 (02): 1 DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.12.026008

Cite This Page:

SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics. "Comprehensive estimate of 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 April 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180430131805.htm>.
SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics. (2018, April 30). Comprehensive estimate of 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180430131805.htm
SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics. "Comprehensive estimate of 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180430131805.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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