Satellite Monitoring of Illicit Maritime Pollution: Backtracking Towards Source Identification

A very mysterious spill was recently discovered near the Istrian peninsula. Immediate response action was launched and later successful oil recovery was announced. Late that same afternoon, after the announced recovery, some oil patches were found along the coast. Four different images were analyzed - three of them acquired by optical sensor and one with radar. The size and shape of the fingerprint as well as the oil's weathered condition suggested that this could be more extensive pollution, the initial release location still unknown, as well as the quantity, carrying the possibility that oil remained below the surface, and that thus further impact on the coast was possible. Three days later, an unusually intense storm hit the area, and part of the hidden/sunken oil beached on the coast 10 Nm north of the initial location where the oil reached the coast. Based on the described case study, integration of an spill area derived from the satellite images, with HF measured currents and AIS shipping database supporting the backtracking oil spill application will be demonstrated as an appropriate system for the purpose of polluter identification. Keywords: Satellite surveillance, illicit oil pollution, hindcast simulation, backtracking

PERKOVIC Marko;  MUELLENHOFF Oliver;  COSOLI Simone;  DELGADO Leonard;  GREIDANUS Harm;  FERRARO DI SILVI E CASTIGLIONE Guido;  HARSCH Rick; 

2010-03-31

International Center for Remote Sensing of Environment (ICRSE)

JRC52276

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC52276,