bellingcat
•81% Informative
On Slicks and Satellites: An Open Source Guide to Marine Oil Spill Detection.
In Europe , a suspected 3,000 major illegal oil dumps take place annually , with an estimated release of between 15,000 and 60,000 tonnes of oil in the North Sea .
Optical and radar sensors can be used to track and identify oil spills.
The impact of any single oil spill on a marine or coastal ecosystem can be devastating.
The most frequently available optical imagery comes from Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, Landsat , MODIS and MODIS .
In both the EO and Copernicus Browsers , there are several tricks to improve your image.
Different spectral bands, different wavelengths of light, can help to visualise specific reflections in the light spectrum, helping to distinguish water from soil and different types of vegetation.
With enough patience you can measure the size of an oil slick by clicking its boundaries.
Phytoplankton , a type of algae bloom, can easily appear and behave like an oil spill when viewed from a satellite.
Swarms of jellyfish and marine mucilage aka sea snot’, which cause large white or greenish slicks on the surface of the water, can also be mistaken for oil spills.
VR Score
79
Informative language
78
Neutral language
5
Article tone
formal
Language
English
Language complexity
55
Offensive language
not offensive
Hate speech
not hateful
Attention-grabbing headline
not detected
Known propaganda techniques
not detected
Time-value
long-living
External references
73
Source diversity
55
Affiliate links
no affiliate links