The oil spill from a shipwreck in Kerch Strait: radar monitoring and numerical modelling

摘要

An oil-spill emergency occurred in Kerch Strait (between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov) on 11 November 2007 after the sinking of the tanker Volgoneft-139 in a severe storm. The results of monitoring with Radarsat-1, TerraSAR-X and Envisat synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-equipped satellites with results from the numerical SPILLMOD model are compared. Analysis of the spatial distribution of oil pollution visible on the SAR images shows that the majority of oil was the result of this accident. SAR images were used to locate and calculate areas of regions with the greatest contamination by fuel oil. Comparison of these oil areas with results from the oil-spill prediction model generally shows good agreement.