Deepwater Horizon oil spill monitoring using airborne multispectral infrared imagery

摘要

On April 28, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) aircraft was deployed to Gulfport, Mississippi to provide airborne remotely sensed air monitoring and situational awareness data and products in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. The ASPECT aircraft was released from service on August 9, 2010 after having flown over 85 missions that included over 325 hours of flight operation. This paper describes several advanced analysis capabilities specifically developed for the Deepwater Horizon mission to correctly locate, identify, characterize, and quantify surface oil using ASPECT's multispectral infrared data. The data products produced using these advanced analysis capabilities provided the Deepwater Horizon Incident Command with a capability that significantly increased the effectiveness of skimmer vessel oil recovery efforts directed by the U.S. Coast Guard, and were considered by the Incident Command as key situational awareness information