Images
April 30, 2010 - Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico
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Tens of thousands of gallons of oil a day were leaking into the Gulf of Mexico in late April 2010 from an oil well. This image shows what the spill looked like on April 25.
This image of the slick was captured on the 26th by the MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The image is true color, but the lower reflectance values were stretched for the purpose of highlighting the oil slick. If you move your mouse over the image, you'll see the unadjusted true color - in that image, the slick is hard to see.
Just because it is less obvious than it was in the previous day's image is not necessarily a sign that it is smaller or more dispersed. The ability to detect oil slicks in photo-like satellite images is very sensitive to the viewing geometry—the angles between the surface, the Sun, and the satellite—at the time of the image. If the slick happens to be located in the sunglint part of the image, it may be very visible, but if not, it can be faint or even impossible to see. Adjusting the colors on images can be useful to bring out hidden features like the slick.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 04/26/2010
Resolutions:
500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Tens of thousands of gallons of oil a day were leaking into the Gulf of Mexico in late April 2010 from an oil well. This image shows what the spill looked like on April 25. This image of the slick was captured on the 26th by the MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The image is true color, but the lower reflectance values were stretched for the purpose of highlighting the oil slick. If you move your mouse over the image, you'll see the unadjusted true color - in that image, the slick is hard to see.
Just because it is less obvious than it was in the previous day's image is not necessarily a sign that it is smaller or more dispersed. The ability to detect oil slicks in photo-like satellite images is very sensitive to the viewing geometry—the angles between the surface, the Sun, and the satellite—at the time of the image. If the slick happens to be located in the sunglint part of the image, it may be very visible, but if not, it can be faint or even impossible to see. Adjusting the colors on images can be useful to bring out hidden features like the slick.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 04/26/2010
Resolutions:
500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
