Studies of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill With the UAVSAR Radar
Abstract
On 22- 23 June 2010, the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) L band radar imaged the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the effects of oil that was transported within the Gulf of Mexico. We describe the campaign and discuss the unique contributions of the UAVSAR radar to the study of the detection, migration, and impact of oil from the spill. We present an overview of UAVSAR data analyses that support the original science goals of the campaign, namely, (1) algorithm development for oil slick detection and characterization, (2) mapping of oil intrusion into coastal wetlands and intercoastal waterways, and (3) ecosystem impact studies. Our study area focuses on oil-affected wetlands in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. The results indicate that fine resolution, low-noise, L band radar can detect surface oil-on-water with sufficient sensitivity to identify regions in a slick with different types of oil/emulsions and/or oil coverage; identify oil on waters in inland bays and differentiate mixed/weathered oil from fresh oil as it moves into the area; identify areas of potentially impacted wetlands and vegetation in the marshes; and support the crisis response through location of compromised booms and heavily oiled beaches.
Additional Information
© 2011 American Geophysical Union. We thank the UAVSAR team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Dryden Flight Research Cemer for the excellent support in planning and conducting the UAVSAR mission and processing the data. We thank Dr. Bruce A. Davis of the Department of Homeland Security for acquiring the ground survey data within Barataria Bay concurrent with the UAVSAR flight and Dr. Zhihong Pan of the Galileo Group, Inc., for donation of their hyperspectral and optical images collected over Bay Jimmy. We also acknowledge Dr. Hans Graber and Dr. Michael Caruso from the University of Miami for advice regarding the ERS-2 SAR collection during the DWH spill. The UAVSAR data are courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech (http:/uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.asf.alaska.edu). The ERS-2 SAR imagery is provided by the European Space Agency. The research described in this paper was earned out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Attached Files
Published - 2011GM001113.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 51042
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141030-073957618
- Created
-
2014-10-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2020-03-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Geophysical Monograph
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 195