Research on Oil Pollution of the Caspian Sea by GIS Systems

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland water body on Earth without a direct connection to the world’s oceans, which makes it a unique water reservoir. This fact makes the Caspian Sea particularly vulnerable and subject to human influence, for example, pollution from shipping activities and oil transports by ships. Over the years, oil pollution has been the primary environmental problem of the Caspian Sea. In this paper, we present the results of our satellite survey in 2019 of the whole aquatic area of the Caspian Sea. These results reveal the spatial and temporal distribution of hydrocarbon films of various origins on the sea surface. Our primary attention focused on the main types of petroleum hydrocarbon films polluting the sea surface. The research study shows results from a monitoring campaign in northern and central parts of the Caspian Sea (Kazakhstan sector) for the period from 2005 to 2012 (April–October), based on visual interpretation of radar images from ASAR ENVISAT. Radar data (529 radar images) such as ASAR_WSM_1P and ASAR_IM_1P were obtained from the archives of the European Space Agency. In 529 ASAR ENVISAT images, 160 images were selected, on which 329 oil spills were detected (Aliyev, 2003; Aliyev, 2010; Bayramov et al., 2018; Airbus, 2012; Caspian, 2018). We mapped the petroleum hydrocarbon pollution of the Caspian Sea surface on the base of satellite data. For each type of pollution, specific manifestation features were revealed, regions of regular pollution occurrence were outlined, and polluted areas were estimated. The relative contribution of every kind of pollution to the total oil pollution of the Caspian Sea is assessed on the base of satellite data. A comparison with the previous results of our longterm survey of the Caspian Sea is made (Aliyev, 2003; Bayramov et al., 2018; Lavrova et al., 2019; CIA, 2001)

Nadzor raspodjele uljnih mrlja u hrvatskom dijelu Jadranskog mora: potrebe i mogućnosti

A set of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and geographic information system (GIS) can significantly contribute to monitoring and identification of oil spills floating on the sea surface. Initially, the GIS has been proven as an excellent management tool for resources assessment, oil spill response and planning, and damage assessment, but the possibilities of GIS mapping also integrate geographical, remote sensing, oil & gas production/infrastructure data and slick signatures detected by SAR. Data from different sources such as nautical charts, geo-databases, ground truth and remote sensing data combined in GIS reveal offshore/onshore oil sources, and estimate the intensity and evolution of oil pollution. SAR and GIS together can significantly improve identification and classification of oil spills, leading to the product - oil spill distribution maps. This approach, applied successfully in different water basins, can also be applied to oil spill monitoring/ mapping in Croatian waters of the Adriatic Sea – it can contribute to understanding the spatio-temporal distribution of oil spills in the Adriatic Sea and be an ideal tool for an oil spill monitoring system. In the framework of the Croatian initiative towards regional cooperation in the Adriatic Sea, such an approach represents a good national opportunity. In this paper, the properties of SAR imagery, as the most reliable source of oil spill information, are described. The possibilities of a combined SAR-GIS approach to oil spill monitoring and GIS databases as a management tools for the protection of the Adriatic Sea are discussed.Kombinacija SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satelitskih snimaka i geografskog informacijskog sustava (GIS) može znatno doprinjeti pračenju i prepoznavanju tankog filma ulja koji pliva na površini mora. U početku, GIS se pokazao odličnim sredstvom u gospodarenju resursa i planiranju zaštite od uljnih mrlja, ali mogućnosti GIS-a postoje i u integriranju geografskih informacija o infrastrukturi za preradu/transport nafte sa satelitskim informacijama od SAR snimaka. Podaci različitih izvora kao što su nautičke mape, geografske baze podataka, mjerenja in-situ te podaci daljinskih mjerenja u kombinaciji sa GIS-om mogu otkriti obalne i morske izvore ulja i odrediti intenzitet i razvoj uljnog zagađenja. SAR i GIS zajedno mogu znatno poboljšati identifikaciju i klasifikaciju uljnog zagađenja, dovodeći do produkta – mapa raspodjele uljnih mrlja na Jadranu. Ovaj pristup, uspješno primijenjen u različitim morskim bazenima može se primijeniti i za monitoring i mapiranje u hrvatskim obalnim vodama na Jadranu, a također može doprinjeti razumijevanju prostorno vremenske raspodjele uljnih mrlja na Jadranu te biti idealan alat nacionalnog sustava monitoriga. U okviru hrvatske inicijative prema regionalnoj suradnji na Jadranu ovaj pristup može predstavljati dodatnu mogućnost. U ovom su radu opisane osobine SAR snimaka, kao najpouzdanijeg izvora informacija o uljnim mrljama. Raspravljene su i mogućnosti kombiniranog SAR-GIS pristupa nadzoru uljnih mrlja te baza podataka u GIS-u kao sredstva korisnog u zaštiti Jadrana

Ocean Remote Sensing with Synthetic Aperture Radar

The ocean covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface, 90% of the biosphere and contains 97% of Earth’s water. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can image the ocean surface in all weather conditions and day or night. SAR remote sensing on ocean and coastal monitoring has become a research hotspot in geoscience and remote sensing. This book—Progress in SAR Oceanography—provides an update of the current state of the science on ocean remote sensing with SAR. Overall, the book presents a variety of marine applications, such as, oceanic surface and internal waves, wind, bathymetry, oil spill, coastline and intertidal zone classification, ship and other man-made objects’ detection, as well as remotely sensed data assimilation. The book is aimed at a wide audience, ranging from graduate students, university teachers and working scientists to policy makers and managers. Efforts have been made to highlight general principles as well as the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of SAR Oceanography

Unsupervised multi-scale change detection from SAR imagery for monitoring natural and anthropogenic disasters

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Radar remote sensing can play a critical role in operational monitoring of natural and anthropogenic disasters. Despite its all-weather capabilities, and its high performance in mapping, and monitoring of change, the application of radar remote sensing in operational monitoring activities has been limited. This has largely been due to: (1) the historically high costs associated with obtaining radar data; (2) slow data processing, and delivery procedures; and (3) the limited temporal sampling that was provided by spaceborne radar-based satellites. Recent advances in the capabilities of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have developed an environment that now allows for SAR to make significant contributions to disaster monitoring. New SAR processing strategies that can take full advantage of these new sensor capabilities are currently being developed. Hence, with this PhD dissertation, I aim to: (i) investigate unsupervised change detection techniques that can reliably extract signatures from time series of SAR images, and provide the necessary flexibility for application to a variety of natural, and anthropogenic hazard situations; (ii) investigate effective methods to reduce the effects of speckle and other noise on change detection performance; (iii) automate change detection algorithms using probabilistic Bayesian inferencing; and (iv) ensure that the developed technology is applicable to current, and future SAR sensors to maximize temporal sampling of a hazardous event. This is achieved by developing new algorithms that rely on image amplitude information only, the sole image parameter that is available for every single SAR acquisition. The motivation and implementation of the change detection concept are described in detail in Chapter 3. In the same chapter, I demonstrated the technique's performance using synthetic data as well as a real-data application to map wildfire progression. I applied Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC) to the data to increase the sampling frequency, while the developed multiscaledriven approach reliably identified changes embedded in largely stationary background scenes. With this technique, I was able to identify the extent of burn scars with high accuracy. I further applied the application of the change detection technology to oil spill mapping. The analysis highlights that the approach described in Chapter 3 can be applied to this drastically different change detection problem with only little modification. While the core of the change detection technique remained unchanged, I made modifications to the pre-processing step to enable change detection from scenes of continuously varying background. I introduced the Lipschitz regularity (LR) transformation as a technique to normalize the typically dynamic ocean surface, facilitating high performance oil spill detection independent of environmental conditions during image acquisition. For instance, I showed that LR processing reduces the sensitivity of change detection performance to variations in surface winds, which is a known limitation in oil spill detection from SAR. Finally, I applied the change detection technique to aufeis flood mapping along the Sagavanirktok River. Due to the complex nature of aufeis flooded areas, I substituted the resolution-preserving speckle filter used in Chapter 3 with curvelet filters. In addition to validating the performance of the change detection results, I also provide evidence of the wealth of information that can be extracted about aufeis flooding events once a time series of change detection information was extracted from SAR imagery. A summary of the developed change detection techniques is conducted and suggested future work is presented in Chapter 6

Особенности применения многочастотного и многоуглового радиолокационных методов для оценки параметров разливов нефти на морской поверхности

Предмет и цель работы – сравнительный анализ измерительных возможностей многочастотного (МЧМ) и многоуглового (МУМ) радиолокационных методов дистанционного зондирования Земли для диагностики параметров морских аварийных разливов нефти. Исследуется применение методов к возможной реализации в космических и авиационных системах радиолокационного мониторинга океана.Предмет і мета роботи – порівняльний аналіз вимірювальних можливостей багаточастотного (БЧМ) і багатокутового (БКМ) радіолокаційних методів дистанційного зондування Землі (ДЗЗ) для діагностики параметрів морських аварійних розливів нафти. Досліджується застосування методів до можливої реалізації у космічних і авіаційних системах радіолокаційного моніторингу океану.Subject and purpose. Comparative analysis of multi-frequency (MFM) and multi-angle (MAM) radar methods has to be carried out in order to evaluate their measurement capabilities for parameters diagnostic of emergency oil spill on sea surface. Methods applications are investigated in connection with possible uses in spaceborne and airborne radar systems for ocean monitoring

Quarterly literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

The Technology Application Center reviewed abstracted literature sources, and selected document data and data gathering techniques which were performed or obtained remotely from space, aircraft or groundbased stations. All of the documentation was related to remote sensing sensors or the remote sensing of the natural resources. Sensors were primarily those operating within the 10 to the minus 8 power to 1 meter wavelength band. Included are NASA Tech Briefs, ARAC Industrial Applications Reports, U.S. Navy Technical Reports, U.S. Patent reports, and other technical articles and reports

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 50

This bibliography lists 523 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between April 1 and June 30, 1986. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

OIL SPILL MODELING FOR IMPROVED RESPONSE TO ARCTIC MARITIME SPILLS: THE PATH FORWARD

Maritime shipping and natural resource development in the Arctic are projected to increase as sea ice coverage decreases, resulting in a greater probability of more and larger oil spills. The increasing risk of Arctic spills emphasizes the need to identify the state-of-the-art oil trajectory and sea ice models and the potential for their integration. The Oil Spill Modeling for Improved Response to Arctic Maritime Spills: The Path Forward (AMSM) project, funded by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC), provides a structured approach to gather expert advice to address U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) core needs for decision-making. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Response & Restoration (OR&R) provides scientific support to the USCG FOSC during oil spill response. As part of this scientific support, NOAA OR&R supplies decision support models that predict the fate (including chemical and physical weathering) and transport of spilled oil. Oil spill modeling in the Arctic faces many unique challenges including limited availability of environmental data (e.g., currents, wind, ice characteristics) at fine spatial and temporal resolution to feed models. Despite these challenges, OR&R’s modeling products must provide adequate spill trajectory predictions, so that response efforts minimize economic, cultural and environmental impacts, including those to species, habitats and food supplies. The AMSM project addressed the unique needs and challenges associated with Arctic spill response by: (1) identifying state-of-the-art oil spill and sea ice models, (2) recommending new components and algorithms for oil and ice interactions, (3) proposing methods for improving communication of model output uncertainty, and (4) developing methods for coordinating oil and ice modeling efforts

Deflection of natural oil droplets through the water column in deep-water environments: The case of the Lower Congo Basin

International audienceNumerous recurrent seep sites were identified in the deep-water environment of the Lower Congo Basin from the analysis of an extensive dataset of satellite-based synthetic-aperture radar images. The integration of current data was used to link natural oil slicks with active seep-related seafloor features. Acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements across the water column provided an efficient means to evaluate the horizontal deflection of oil droplets rising through the water column. Eulerian propagation model based on a range of potential ascension velocities helped to approximate the path for rising oil plume through the water column using two complementary methods. The first method consisted in simulating the reversed trajectory of oil droplets between sea-surface oil slick locations observed during current measurements and seep-related seafloor features while considering a range of ascension velocities. The second method compared the spatial spreading of natural oil slicks from 21 years of satellite monitoring observations for water depths ranging from 1200 to 2700 m against the modeled deflections during the current measurement period. The mapped oil slick origins are restricted to a 2.5 km radius circle from associated seep-related seafloor features. The two methods converge towards a range of ascension velocities for oil droplets through the water column, estimated between 3 and 8 cm s-1. The low deflection values validate that the sub-vertical projection of the average surface area of oil slicks at the sea surface can be used to identify the origin of expelled hydrocarbon from the seafloor, which expresses as specific seafloor disturbances (i.e. pockmarks or mounds) known to expel fluids