Optical Remote Sensing of Oil Spills in the Ocean: What Is Really Possible?
Open Access
- 1 January 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Journal of Remote Sensing
Abstract
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.Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (42071387)
- U.S. NOAA (NA15OAR4320064)
- University of South Florida
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Optical contrast of oil dispersed in seawater under windy conditionsJournal of the European Optical Society: Rapid Publications, 2013
- Polarimetric retrievals of surface and cirrus clouds properties in the region affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spillRemote Sensing of Environment, 2012
- Development of band ratioing algorithms and neural networks to detection of oil spills using Landsat ETM+ dataEURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2012
- Spectroscopic characterization of oils yielded from Brazilian offshore basins: Potential applications of remote sensingRemote Sensing of Environment, 2011
- Oil spill response planning with consideration of physicochemical evolution of the oil slick: A multiobjective optimization approachComputers & Chemical Engineering, 2011
- Detection and tracking of oil slicks on sun-glittered visible and near infrared satellite imageryInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 2009
- Assessing the effect of hydrocarbon oil type and thickness on a remote sensing signal: A sensitivity study based on the optical properties of two different oil types and the HYMAP and Quickbird sensorsRemote Sensing of Environment, 2009
- Oil spill detection by satellite remote sensingRemote Sensing of Environment, 2005
- MODIS detects oil spills in Lake Maracaibo, VenezuelaEos, 2003
- Measurement of the Roughness of the Sea Surface from Photographs of the Sun’s GlitterJournal of the Optical Society of America, 1954