Satellite oil spill detection and monitoring in the optical range

Timely detection and continuously updated information are fundamental in reducing oil spill environmental impact. In particular meteorological satellite, thanks to an high temporal resolution and to an easy data delivery, can be profitably used for a near real time sea monitoring. Recently, a new methodology for oil spill detection and monitoring, based on the general Robust Satellite Technique (RST) approach, has been proposed. This technique, based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Thermal Infrared (TIR) data has shown a good capability in automatically detect, with high reliability, oil spill presence. In this paper results obtained by applying such a technique for the analysis of the "Seki-Baynunah" oil spill event occurred in March 1994, will be shown and analyzed. Moreover, a recent improvement of the proposed approach, developed in order to intercept oil spill of small size/low intensity, will be also presented and discussed.