OIL POLLUTION DETECTION AND MONITORING FROM SPACE

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the feasibility of using ERTS-1 satellite data as a means of monitoring and detecting oil spills on oceanic and estuarian waters. Three reported spills were investigated using four analysis methods on ERTS-1 digital data. The results indicate that any of these methods might be usable, if the spill were large enough to be seen by satellite, if the spill occurs more than a few kilometers off-shore, and if the sky and water are relatively clear. In one case, detection was accomplished but identification of material was not possible, and in the other two cases, the spills could not be detected at all. ERTS-1 was not considered feasible for operational oil-pollution monitoring because of its 18 day overpass frequency, the few spectral channels, the the extended bandwidths, and the long information retrieval time. Monitoring and detection of oil spills could involve a satellite, if these drawbacks were corrected.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper from the Proceedings of the 1975 IEEE Conference on Engineering in the Ocean Environment.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5997
• Authors:
  • Goldman, G C
  • Harvath, R
• Conference:
  • Paper from the Proceedings of the 1975 IEEE Conference on Engineering in the Ocean Environment.
• Publication Date: 1975-9

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 787-793

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Artificial satellites; Detectors; Monitoring; Oil spill cleanup; Remote sensing
• Old TRIS Terms: Oil detection; Oil spill detection; Oil spill monitoring; Satellite systems
• Subject Areas: Environment; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00129221
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 19 1976 12:00AM