The Use of a RADARSAT-Derived Long-Term Dataset to Investigate the Sea Surface Expressions of Human-Related Oil Spills and Naturally Occurring Oil Seeps in Campeche Bay, Gulf of Mexico

摘要

La Baie de Campeche, située sur la cote Mexicaine dans le Golfe du Mexique, est une région productrice de combustibles fossiles, avec de nombreuses plateformes exploitant le petrole et le gaz naturel. Afin de reduire ses impacts negatifs sur les ecosystemes marins, Pemex surveille en permanence la Baie de Campeche pour les fuites naturelles et anthropiques. Les donnees pluriannuelles (2000-2012) des mesures de radar a synthese d'ouverture «synthetic aperture radar» des satellites RADARSAT (766) sont utilisees pour etudier la distribution spatio-temporelle des nappes de petrole (14.210) dans cette region. La presente etude a un triple objectif: (1) decrire la strategie de surveillance de Pemex et les informations qu'elle a produites; (2) etudier la distribution spatio-temporelle de la nappe de petrole de la Baie de Campeche, notamment les aspects lies a son occurrence; et (3) demontrer l'utilite des informations obtenues par RADARSAT dans les systemes a long terme de surveillance environnementale en milieu marin. Les observations confirment l'enorme impact du suintement d'huile Cantarell dans la Baie de Campeche. Generalement, les deversements de petrole (96%) surviennent a moins de 100 m et les suintements (63%) a plus de 1,000 m de profondeur. L'efficacite de l'utilisation a long terme de RADARSAT a ete demontree.%Campeche Bay, located in the Gulf of Mexico, is a well-established fossil fuel producing region, with numerous oilrnrigs exploring oil and natural gas. In an effort to reduce negative impacts on marine ecosystems, Pemex continuously monitoredrnCampeche Bay for oil slicks, i.e., naturally occurring oil seeps and manmade oil spills. A long-term dataset (2000–2012) of syntheticrnaperture radar measurements from both RADARSAT satellites (766) is leveraged to investigate the spatial-temporal distributionrnof oil slicks (14,210) in this region. The present study has a threefold goal: (1) describe themonitoring strategy completed by Pemexrnand the information produced during such monitoring; (2) investigate the spatial-temporal distribution of the oil slicks observedrnin Campeche Bay, centering on aspects related to their occurrence; and (3) demonstrate the usefulness of RADARSAT-derivedrninformation in the execution of effective long-term environmental applications to locate seeps and spills on the sea surface. Thernobservations confirm the massive oil input contribution of the Cantarell Oil Seep to the Campeche Bay. Oil spills (96%) usuallyrnoccur in water depths shallower than 100 m, whereas oil seeps (63%) commonly occur in waters deeper than 1,000 m. Thernsuccessful long-term application of RADARSAT-derived information has been shown.