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 extended bandwidths, and the long information retrieval time. Monitoring and detection of oil spills could involve a satellite, if these drawbacks were corrected.