Project Information

Title: Geographic Extent, Temporal Persistence, and Mapping of Floating Oil from the T/V Exxon Valdez Oil Spill AW01

Project Year and Number: 1989: AW01

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 1992: AW01

Principal Investigator (PI): Marshall Kendziorek (Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

Managing Agency: ADEC

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: All Spill Affected Areas

Restoration Category: Damage Assessment

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract: The general mission of this Natural Resource Damage Assessment floating oil mapping effort will be to document the extent, amount and persistence of oil resulting from the TN EXXON VALDEZ oil spill. Maps have been produced on a regular basis showing the location of oil from aerial surveys from the first day of the spill on March 24, 1989. While the aerial overflight mapping effort has been reduced since mid May, to one flight a day from two or three, there are still regular aerial overflights being performed to monitor the location and extent of oil in the water. Another source of information that will yield answers on the extent of floating oil is satellite imagery. The data source used here consists of imagery obtained from a variety of polar-orbiting satellites. The function of the satellite imagery portion of this study is to &vise digital filtering techniques to remove noise and to perform digital enhancements to improve the identification of oil. In addition, the satellite imagery will be enhanced to provide oceanographic data useful in determining the oil's trajectory as well as its weathering, mixing with suspended sediments and related evolution. Finally, there is a possibility that some of the satellite imagery' will yield information that will document the extent of oiled beaches.


Proposal: View (190 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: See Project AW01

Publications from this Project: None Available