1、Advanced Space Technology for Oil Spill Detection - 1 - Advanced Space Technology for OilSpill Detection Maral H. Zeynalova, Rustam B. Rustamov and Saida E. Salahova Abstract Environmental pollution, including oil spill is one of the major ecological problems. Negative human impacts demands to devel
2、op appropriate legislationswithin the national and international framework for marine and coastal environmentas well as the onshore protection. Several seas, for instance the Mediterranean, theBaltic and the North Seas were declared as special areas where ship discharges arecompletely prohibited (Sa
3、tellite Monitoring, LUKOIL). In this regard environmental protection of the Caspian Sea has a priority status forAzerbaijan as a closed water basin ecosystem. This area, as a highly sensitive areain the World requires permanent ecological monitoring services where oil and gasfrom the subsurface of t
4、he Caspian Sea is developing almost more than a century.This status of the Caspian Sea is expected to be retention at least for the comingfty years. Remote sensing is a key instrument for successful response to the onshore andoffshore oil spills impacts. There is an extreme need for timely recogniti
5、on of theoil spilled areas with the exact place of location, extent of its oil contamination andverication of predictions of the movement and fate of oil slicks. Black Sea region is expected to have a dramatic increase in the trafc of crude oil(mainly from the Caspian region). The main reason for th
6、ese changes is the growthof oil industry in both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The real substantial changes intanker movements and routs are not clear till now. A necessity for a continuous observation of the marine environment comes aforewhen clarifying the tendencies of changes in the concentration o
7、f the particularlydangerous polluting substances as well as the behavior of different kinds of pollutingsubstances in the detected area i.e., creation of a system for monitoring the pollution(L.A. Stoyanov and G.D. Balashov, UNISPACE III, Varna, Bulgaria). The exploration of geological and oil produ
8、ction started in the shelf of theCaspian Sea a long time ago. The Caspian Sea is a highly sensitive region on ecological and biodiversity point of view. Oil dumps and emergency oil spill have anextremely bad inuence on the marine and earth ecosystem and can lead to theecological balance. Certainly t
9、he general issue of oil and gas pipeline safety includes aspects of natural disasters and problems related to the environment. After successful construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum gas pipelinethese aspects especially became very important for Azerbaijan and d
10、enitely, for theregion. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Export Pipeline comprises a regionalcrude oil export transportation system, approximately 1750 in overall length. Generally, oil spill monitoring in the offshore and onshore is carried out bymeans of specially equipped airborne, ships and sat
11、ellites. Obviously, daylights andweather conditions limit marine and aerial surveillance of oil spills. KeywordsSpace technology. Space image. Oil spil Detection Introduction Generally, oil spillage is categorized into four groups: minor, medium, major anddisaster. Minor spill neither takes place wh
12、en oil discharge is less than 25 barrels ininland waters nor less than 250 barrels on land, the offshore or coastal waters thatdoes nor pose a threat to the public health or welfare. In case of the medium spillthe spill must be 250 barrels or less in the inland water or from 250 to 2 500 barrelson l
13、and, offshore and coastal water while for the major spill, the discharge to theinland waters is in excess of 250 barrels on land, offshore or coastal waters. Thedisaster refers to any uncontrolled well blowout, pipeline rupture or storage tankfailure which poses an immediate threat to public health
14、or welfare. Satellite-based remote sensing equipment installed in the satellite is used formonitoring, detecting and identifying sources of accidental oil spills. Remote sensing devices include the use of infrared, video and photography from airborne platforms. In the mean time presently a number of
15、 systems like airborne radar, laser uorescence, microwave radiometer, SAR, ERS 1, ERS 2, ENVISAT and LANDSATsatellite systems are applied for the same purposes. Currently more than a dozensatellites are in the orbit producing petabytes of data daily. Detailed description ofthese satellites, major ch
16、aracteristics of sensors can be summarized as follows: Spatial resolution of sensors ranges from 1 meter (e.g. IKONOS) to several kilo-meters (e.g. GEOS) Satellite sensors commonly use visible to near-infrared, infrared and microwaveportions of electromagnetic spectrum； Spectral resolution of satell
17、ite data ranges from single band (Radarsat) to multibands (e.g. MODIS with 36 bands) Temporal resolution (repeat time) varies from several times a day (e.g. Meteosat) Advanced Space Technology for Oil Spill Detection - 2 - The majority of satellites are sun synchronous and polar orbiting, crossing t
18、heequator at around 10 a.m. local time during their descending pass Digital data are available in both panchromatic (black and white) and multi- spectral modes Using the recent advanced space technology, the following methodology can beapplied for the oil spills detections: Development of oil spill
19、detection methods for the purpose of practical oilspill surveillance related to the space imagery with application of any weatherconditions； Adaptation of the observation to other systems to predict the oil spill spread direction and ow rate characteristics, determination the pollutant contamination
20、s； Development of appropriate data and user interface There is a need for effectively direct spill countermeasures such as mechanical containment and recovery, dispersant application and burning, protection ofsites along threatened coastlines and the preparation of resources for the shorelineclean-u
21、p. As it is mentioned in the beginning, the remote sensing is one of the main methods for an effective response to the oil spills environmental monitoring. Timelyresponse to an oil spill requires rapid investigation of the spill site to determineits exact location, extent of oil contamination, oil s
22、pill thickness, in particular. Policy makers, managers, scientists and the public can view the changing environment using the satellite images. Remote sensing is the discipline of observingthe Earths surface without direct contact with the objects located at the surface. Itallows obtaining informati
23、on about the planet and human activities from a distancewhich can reveal interesting features that may not be possible or affordable fromthe ground level. One of the applications of remote sensing is water and coastalresources. It is essential to undertake the following aspects while using the remot
24、esensing method: Determination of surface water areas Monitoring the environmental effects of human activities； Mapping oods and ood plains； Determination of the extent of snow and ice； Measuring glacial features； Mapping shoreline changes； Tracing oil and pollutions. The fact that remote sensing al
25、lows multi-temporal analysis is also very important. This means that an area of interest can be monitored over time so that changescan be detected. It allows analyzing phenomena like vegetation growth during different seasons, the extent of annual oods, the retreat of glaciers or the spread offorest
26、 res or oil spills (Vhenenye Okoro, 2004). Remote sensing is a useful method in several modes of oil spill control, includinga large scale area of surveillance ability, specic site monitoring and advantagesof technical and technological assistance in emergency cases. There is a signicant capacity of
27、 providing essential information to enhance strategic and tacticaldecision-making, decreasing response costs by facilitating rapid oilrecovery andultimately minimizing impacts. Observation can be undertaken visually or by using remote sensing systems. Inremote sensing, a sensor other than human visi
28、on or conventional photography isused to detect or map oil spills. Oil Spill Detection Oil production and transportation is started on the offshore “Azeri Chiraq Guneshli” oileld, located at the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Thereforedevelopment and implementation of onshore and offshore oi
29、l spill monitoring anddetection are highly important for the Caspian Sea basin countries. Figure 1 showsthe overall map of the Caspian Sea region countries. Oil statistics of the major Caspian Sea oil producing countries are presented inTable 1. For visual observations of oil spill from the air usin
30、g the video photography arethe simplest, most common and convenient method of determining the location andextent (scale and size) of an oil spill. There are a number of sensors on surveillanceof the sea surface: Microwave radiometers which allow the determination of the oil thickness； Ultraviolet and infrared scanners which allow to detect respectively very thin andvery thick oil lms； Laser uorescence sensors which allow the determination of oil type. Fig. 1 Overall map of the Caspian Sea region countries
