title: Oil slick morphology derived from AVIRIS measurements of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Implications for spatial resolution requirements of remote sensors.
abstract: Using fine spatial resolution (~7.6m) hyperspectral AVIRIS data collected over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we statistically estimated slick lengths, widths and length/width ratios to characterize oil slick morphology for different thickness classes. For all AVIRIS-detected oil slicks (N=52,100 continuous features) binned into four thickness classes (≤50 μm but thicker than sheen, 50-200 μm, 200-1000 μm, and >1000 μm), the median lengths, widths, and length/width ratios of these classes ranged between 22 and 38 m, 7-11 m, and 2.5-3.3, respectively. The AVIRIS data were further aggregated to 30-m (Landsat resolution) and 300-m (MERIS resolution) spatial bins to determine the fractional oil coverage in each bin. Overall, if 50% fractional pixel coverage were to be required to detect oil with thickness greater than sheen for most oil containing pixels, a 30-m resolution sensor would be needed.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 Seventh Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States.
authors.forename: Shaojie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 Seventh Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States. Electronic address: huc@usf.edu.
authors.forename: Chuanmin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 Seventh Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States.
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey, Crustal Geophysics and Geochemistry Science Center, MS XXX, Denver, CO 80225, United States.
authors.forename: Gregg A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Swayze
authors.affiliation: Abt Associates Inc., 1881 Ninth St, Suite 201, Boulder, CO 80302, United States.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.affiliation: NOAA Ocean Service, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, United States.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Graettinger
authors.affiliation: Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Science Department, Florida State University, 117 N. Woodward Ave., Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Science Department, Florida State University, 117 N. Woodward Ave., Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: Bubbleology Research International (BRI), 5910 Matthews St, Goleta, CA 93117, United States.
authors.forename: Ira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Leifer
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D008800:Mexico; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D014872:Water Movements
keywords: AVIRIS; Landsat; MERIS; Morphology; Oil spill; Remote sensing