A Review of Oil Spill Remote Sensing

Abstract

The technical aspects of oil spill remote sensing are examined and the practical uses and drawbacks of each technology are given with a focus on unfolding technology. The use of visible techniques is ubiquitous, but limited to certain observational conditions and simple applications. Infrared cameras offer some potential as oil spill sensors but have several limitations. Both techniques, although limited in capability, are widely used because of their increasing economy. The laser fluorosensor uniquely detects oil on substrates that include shoreline, water, soil, plants, ice, and snow. New commercial units have come out in the last few years. Radar detects calm areas on water and thus oil on water, because oil will reduce capillary waves on a water surface given moderate winds. Radar provides a unique option for wide area surveillance, all day or night and rainy/cloudy weather. Satellite-carried radars with their frequent overpass and high spatial resolution make these day–night and all-weather sensors essential for delineating both large spills and monitoring ship and platform oil discharges. Most strategic oil spill mapping is now being carried out using radar. Slick thickness measurements have been sought for many years. The operative technique at this time is the passive microwave. New techniques for calibration and verification have made these instruments more reliable.

Refined Analysis of RADARSAT-2 Measurements to Discriminate Two Petrogenic Oil-Slick Categories: Seeps versus Spills

“…The impact of mineral oil pollution is a widely spread source of environmental concern in various ecosystems [1,2]. The detection of the sea surface expression of oil using space-borne surveillance systems is an extensively studied subject [3][4][5]. Oil floating on the surface of the ocean can be located, to some extent, with different types of remote sensing sensors-e.g., thermal infrared (AVHRR: Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer [6]), visible/near infrared (MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [7]), etc.-but generally, most attempts concentrate on using satellite-derived measurements from active microwave-imaging instruments (SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radars [8][9][10]), e.g., RADARSAT [11,12].…”

Analysis of Scattering Properties of Continuous Slow-Release Slicks on the Sea Surface Based on Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar

“…The parameter combination of H and A 12 , which increase the likelihood of distinguishing different ocean slicks, is proposed to analyze the character of targets, i.e., (1 …”

“…Oil pollution has received extensive public attention on account of the resulting ecological destruction, including oil floating on the sea surface, residual oil deposited on coastlines, sunken and submerged oil, oiled marine animals, and areas of oil-polluted sea ice [1][2][3][4]. Alves and Zodiatis have conducted some of the most complete studies of oil spill response in the form of an assessment of the impact of oil spills on human activity and shorelines; offshore susceptibility; and clean-up, and mitigation efforts in the Mediterranean Basin and the Baltic Sea based on some worthy projects on oil spill response [5][6][7][8].…”

Pre-Launch Assessment of RADARSAT Constellation Mission Medium Resolution Modes for Sea Oil Slicks and Lookalike Discrimination

“…Major advancements in the remote sensing techniques for oil slick detection in the ocean have been observed recently (Minchew et al 2012;Angelliaume et al 2018;Fingas and Brown 2018). State-of-the-art satellite imagery, especially Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), enables to spot oil slicks in the early stages of an accident and to monitor systematic pollution over major shipping routes (Vijayakumar and Santhi 2015).…”