Optical Remote Sensing of Oil Spills in the Ocean: What Is Really Possible?

Details

• Journal Title:
  Journal of Remote Sensing
• Personal Author:
  Hu, Chuanmin ; Lu, Yingcheng ; Sun, Shaojie ; Liu, Yongxue
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
• Description:
  Optical remote sensing (ORS) of reflected sun light has been used to assess oil spills in the ocean for several decades. While most applications are toward simple presence/absence detections based on the spatial contrast between oiled water and oil-free water, recent advances indicate the possibility of classifying oil types and quantifying oil volumes based on their spectral contrasts with oil-free water. However, a review of the current literature suggests that there is still confusion on whether this is possible and, if so, how. Here, based on the recent findings from numerical models, laboratory measurements, and applications to satellite or airborne imagery, we attempt to clarify this situation by summarizing (1) the optics behind oil spill remote sensing, and in turn, (2) how to interpret optical remote sensing imagery based on optical principles. In the end, we discuss the existing limitations and challenges as well as pathways forward to advance ORS of oil spills.
• Keywords:
  General Engineering
• Source:
  Journal of Remote Sensing, 2021
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.34133/2021/9141902
• ISSN:
  2694-1589
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA15OAR4320064
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:064447d8b5eba3b85cfc17cfd7a7d0712c5fae46073e43c3651e4218922a7996
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/58969/noaa_58969_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.76 MB ]