The Mechanism Of Optical Remote Sensing In Oil Spill Detection And Case Studies

Nowadays, oil exploration and development has been carried out from the landto the sea and from shallow water to the deep ocean in the world, which is generallyaccompanied by a large number of oil and related products accidents invading theocean, land and underground water every year. According to the relevant statistics,every four days there is one oil spill occurred in China’s coastal areas. Optical sensorsusing visible and infrared bands aboard on the satellite own wide swath, long lifetimeobserving with multichannel spectral information, therefore, it is important to usesuch sensors to detect oil spills in the ocean.The presence of sunglint in optical imagery has been considered as a seriousdata loss generally. However, the acquisition of imagery containing oil slick areasdominated by sunglint can, in certain circumstances, be of considerable value. Basedon the Cox-Munk model, this thesis studied the effect of the environmental factorsthat affect brightness changes of oil slick in sunglint imagery. With the premise ofCox-Munk model analysis and taking Mexico Gulf oil pollution as an example, thesatellite data acquired over the Mexico Gulf by the MODIS and FY-3/MERSI sensorswhich contain oil slick are processed and analyzed in this thesis. The research resultsshow that the appearance of the oil slick in sunglint imagery depends on the oceansurface roughness, and the most important on the sensor zenith angle; the relativeazimuth angle between the satellite sensor and sun has little impact on the detection ofoil slick in sunglint imagery; the viewing angle of the observer to the oil slick areaowns a critical angle where the brightness changes; the speed and direction of thewind has great impact on the appearance of the oil slick generally. In addition, thisthesis paid close attention to the China Bohai Oilfield oil spill, and the BonnAgreement Oil Appearance Code used as the standard method for assessing thevolume of oil was summarized, then the CCD imageries acquired by the HJ-1A/Bsatellites were used to monitor the distribution of the Bohai oil slicks. The methods and results used in this thesis are useful in understanding the observed sea surfacesignature in the rough and smooth portions of oceanic and atmospheric phenomenasuch as internal waves, ocean currents and eddies.