Earth Observation in support of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Highway Development and Coastal and Marine Contamination Prevention Project - Oil spill detection & Coral reef monitoring Juan GAVIRIA, Sector Leader AFTTR Date : February 29th 2012
Content - The issue - What kinds of oil spills? - What kind of support is expected? - The service - How does it work? - Why use satellites? - User interface - Results - Achieved coverage - Detected spills - Identified polluters - Feedback from users - Conclusion and perspectives
The issue What kinds of oil spills? Accidental spills Shipwreck, vessel collisions, spilling rig Infrequent events Large amounts of oil released Crisis situation lasting days or weeks Deliberate spills (illegal discharge) Vessels washing their tanks Smaller amounts of oil (in general) But extremely frequent Pollution visible few hours
The issue What kind of support is expected? Provide real-time monitoring support In case of accidental spills, quick activation of the system in order to support antipollution operations: Monitor slick position and extent Forecast slick drift In case of deliberate spills, systematic surveillance of sensitive areas in order to: Early detect slicks (if possible) Identify polluter Send on-site means for prosecution Compile information In order to better assess and characterize the problem (where, when and how often?)
The service How does it work? - Radar satellites image oil slicks on sea-surface - Sat-AIS collect AIS messages broadcasted by vessels Oil Spill detection Polluter identification MV OCEAN PEARL
The service Why use satellites? - Radar satellites for oil spill detection - Radar technology: operational surveillance: independent of day/night & cloud cover - Wide area monitoring (400 km swath): a single satellite pass may image the entire Channel area in few seconds - Optimal when combined with aerial surveillance: satellite detection used to optimize aircraft missions (sent directly on the polluted sites) - Deterrent effect: we re watching you from space! - AIS satellites for polluter identification - Unambiguous identification of a vessel in the vicinity of a slick - Broad coverage, without deploying a network of AIS coastal receivers
The service User interface - An operational and user-friendly interface to: - Select and order the acquisitions of interest - Check oil spill detection reports - Check polluter identification reports - On-line access through a simple web browser
Results Achieved coverage Service period: July 25 th to December 31 st 2011 (5 months) 122 images acquired: 100 images of size 400km x 400km 15 images of size 300km x 300km 7 images of size 100km x 100km Total coverage: 17,4 millions km2 in 5 months 27images in Jul/Aug 35 images in Sep/Oct 60 images in Nov/Dec
Project Results Detected spills 32 spills were detected Detection rate: 28% per image Spills Lengths: from 1 to 150 km
Project Results Spills locations in line with maritime routes
Project Results Identification of polluters 6 potential polluters were identified Identification rate: 19% per oil spill
Focus on one case: Pollution off Comoros, July 28th 2011 19:32 UTC Ile d Anjouan Ile de Mayotte
Focus on one case: Pollution off Comoros, July 28th 2011 Comoros EEZ 46 Nm French EEZ polluter
Focus on one case: Pollution off Comoros, July 28 th 2011 MSC Sarawak
Results Feedback from users - Positive feedback mostly from France, Mauritius and South Africa - Patrol aircraft flew to check detected spills (Mauritius, France) - Suspected polluters were boarded for inspection while in port transit (RSA) - Testimonies: - a big THANK YOU for all the daily reports for the WIOMH Project region. It was indeed very enlightening and gave us unique opportunities to see what is happening in our waters far off our coastlines - the message will travel about oil detection by satellite in our region - The word is out there that countries in the region are now able to identify polluters so it is making an impact
Conclusions and perspectives - The project was successful in demonstrating that: - Oil spill can be detected (with a rate of 28% per image) - Polluter can be identified (with a rate of 19% per oil spill) - Users feedback was very positive; for the first time, the issue of oil spill occurrence was assessed on a regional scale and turned out to be quite serious - Thanks to the new antenna receiving station in La Réunion, better delivery time should be expected in the future (from 1h30 now to less than 30 minutes in the future) - The service is ready to be included in the WIOMH project
Concept of operations Service chain Radar satellite Sat-AIS Data provider 2c Downlink 2b Acquisition 2a Tasking Ground station CLS Operational center 4 Oil pollution report 3 Polluter identification report 1 Users CLS Order desk Acquisition plan dialogue Area of interest Satellite operating agency
Concept of operations Steps from users perspective - Step 1: Acquisition planning (T0 3 weeks) - Users browse available scenes and send wish list to CLS - T0 4 days (or less) in emergency mode - Step 2: Image acquisition (T0) - Satellite images the Area of Interest - Step 3: Receive oil pollution report (T0 + 1 hour) - Check on-line the report for any detected pollution - T0+40 minutes if local antenna is used - Step 4: Receive polluter identification report (T0 + 3 hours) - Applicable only when a pollution is detected in Step 3 - Check on-line the report for any identified polluter
Example of Support to Crisis Monitoring of the Angel One wreckage - On August 6 th, the cargo Angel One ran aground the Mauritian reef of Poudre d Or - CLS was requested to monitor the wreckage in order to provide early warning in case of oil pollution - Seven high-resolution images were acquired with short time notice (few days) - Fortunately, no oil spill occurred. -
August 30th, 15:03 UTC Example of Support to Crisis Monitoring of the Angel One wreckage Other ships Angel One wreckage
Example of Support to Crisis Monitoring of the Angel One wreckage September 3rd, 14:45 UTC Other ships Angel One wreckage
Example of Support to Crisis Monitoring of the Angel One wreckage September 4th, 05:37 UTC Other ships Angel One wreckage
Example of Support to Crisis Monitoring of the Angel One wreckage September 8th, 01:36 UTC Other ships Angel One wreckage
Thank you for your attention!