Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Detection of oil spills by airborne sensors
Oliver Zielinski
1
, Theo Hengstermann
2
and Nils Robbe
2
1
University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, Faculty of Technology,
Marine Technology, Bremerhaven, Germany
2
OPTIMARE Sensorsysteme AG, Bremerhaven, Germany
Abstract.
Aerial surveillance of marine oil spills has become a multi-
national effort, especially for the deterrence of potential polluters and sup-
port of oil spill clean-up crews. For many years, the main effort has been
directed towards developing sensors with enhanced spill monitoring capa-
bilities. These sensors can be divided into different classes, namely basic
sensors and advanced sensors including thermal imagers with active laser
illumination. Recently, more attention has been paid to the automated deri-
vation of high-level information from airborne remotely sensed multi-
spectral oil spill data. In this paper, we present an algorithmic framework
for automated analysis and fusion of multi-spectral oil spill data acquired
by a near range sensor suite. It is shown how infrared/ultraviolet, micro-
wave radiometer and imaging laser fluorosensor data can be converted into
high-level information using single-sensor data processing and multi-sen-
sor data fusion. It is also explained how this knowledge can, in combina-
tion with external information processing, improve the usability of the
maritime surveillance system.
1 Introduction
Marine pollution by oil spills or harmful chemicals is still one of the major
environmental problems to be faced. Besides the accidental releases of pol-
lutants the main source is assumed from the controlled release by ship traf-
fic and oil production platforms. Since accidents or violations of regu-
lations can never be completely excluded, precautions and instruments are
needed to detect and combat maritime pollutions and a crucial element of
this framework is airborne surveillance. Like no other system, airborne
pollution control is capable
a) to detect possible oil spills by radar sensors,
