Dr Gunnar Pedersen of Kongsberg Satellite Services ...salberg/p51-53_SeaU_H_Res.pdf · Dr Gunnar Pedersen of Kongsberg Satellite Services outlines the impetus behind the launch of

Dr Gunnar Pedersen of Kongsberg Satellite Services outlines the impetus behind the launch of his latest project and explains how it will improve upon existing technology for the detection of oil spills

Firstly, can you offer a short overview of the core objectives of your research and the issues that you hope to address?

The overall objective of the SeaU project is to improve the current state-of-the-art methodology for satellite-based oil spill detection. Through deliveries to both existing and new users we hope to demonstrate how these improvements can contribute to the development of a sustainable downstream service positioned between the Marine Core Service (MCS) and other services such as EMSA CSN. This will be done by integrating new geoinformation products, eg. from the MCS, into innovative methods for oil spill detection and will demonstrate a next-generation service compliant with existing and new users’ expectations.

Could you explain how satellite radar data has been used in detecting potential oil slicks and locating polluters in the past? How will the SeaU consortium enhance this technology?

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has proved to be a useful tool for ocean oil spill detection due to its large coverage, all-weather capability and the ability to work both day and night. The methodology is based on differences in the backscatter of radar waves between the oil spills and the surrounding sea. The SAR signature of an oil spill and its surroundings thus depends on a number of parameters such as wind speed, wave height and the amount, and type, of oil released. SeaU will improve the methodology (automatic algorithms) and include additional data from other space-borne sources, including ship, environmental, and meteorological information.

What are the primary limitations of current satellite technologies used for oil pollution monitoring and source identifi cation?

How do the costs compare to alternative methods?

Capillary waves on the ocean refl ect radar energy. Oil on the sea surface dampens some of these capillary waves, and an oil slick can be detected as a ‘dark’ area. There are many interferences or false targets, including fresh water slicks, wind slicks (calms), wave shadows behind land or structures, weed beds that calm the water just above them, glacial fl ows, biogenic oils and whale and fi sh sperm. Also, in areas with low wind speed, the contrast between oil and the surrounding waters is reduced, resulting in a low detection rate of spills. The methodology is very cost-effective when compared with other methods such as monitoring by aircraft or ship.

What is the current status of your methodology and prototype systems for identifying pollution origin based on coupling drift modelling with different identifi cation systems?

Today, the operational service chain does not include oil drift modelling of oil spills detected from SAR. Oil drift models have been operational as a part of the oil contingency systems for decades, but one of the major inputs to such models are oil type and thickness of the oil slick. These parameters are not available when an oil slick is detected, and need to be obtained from other sources. However, simple oil drift models can give an indication of the main drift of the slick, independent of oil type information.

How will the multisensory approach increase the accuracy of satellite monitors and reduce the delivery time? How do you propose to validate the effi cacy of the system?

The multisensory approach will increase accuracy by reducing false alarms, delivering

a higher resolution, and also by enabling more accurate localisation of the spill. This approach will increase the frequency of monitoring and observation of oil slicks due to an increased number of satellites but it will not automatically reduce the delivery time for reports to end-users. The validation of the system will be similar to the current one, measuring false alarms, delivery time and coverage over selected areas.

What are the projected environmental and economic consequences of these tools?

The aim is to establish a more reliable and accurate satellite based oil detection service. Swift and accurate warning of spills are crucial to initiate actions before the oil drifts on shore. This will result in increased protection of vulnerable marine resources close to land, eg. bird cliffs and vulnerable areas along the shoreline. Money will be saved and damage to the environment reduced if spills can be dealt with more effi ciently offshore due to better information from the new tools.

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Slick serviceIncreased maritime traffi c and oil drilling activities heighten the risk of environmentally damaging oil spills. The SeaU consortium has been set up to improve current service of satellite-based oil spill detection

SINCE 1970 THERE have been nearly 10,000 recorded oil spills involving millions of tonnes of oil being discharged into the environment. Such spills originate from ships, oil rigs and pipelines, causing signifi cant damage to the marine and coastal environments as well as having a large fi nancial impact. Oil spills that impact shorelines cause more extensive environmental damage and are considerably more expensive to clean up than those that can be dealt with offshore. As a result, quick detection and warning of oil slicks at sea is crucial as it allows pollution control authorities to initiate actions before the oil spreads too widely or drifts on shore.

In September 2005, a European Directive on ship-source pollution and the introduction of penalties for infringements boosted the task of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to support Member States’ activities in the fi eld of monitoring marine oil spills. In 2007, EMSA launched the CleanSeaNet (CSN) satellite-based oil slick detection service to EC and EFTA Member States.

A consortium coordinated by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) was awarded the fi rst three-year service contract, and to date the service has been well integrated with existing users’ working practice and has proven its operational value, and a positive impact

through user feedback. However, evaluation activities have also highlighted weaknesses and a need for improved quality and enhanced functionality.

A key requirement is greater accuracy in detection: the number of false reports must be reduced, as unnecessary fl ight hours are costly and may diminish the reliability and utility of the service among users. In response to the call for improvement, KSAT has established a new consortium to develop Multisensor Satellite Technologies for Oil Pollution Monitoring and Source Identifi cation (SeaU) with a view to employing a collaborative approach to develop a next-generation service compliant with existing and new users’ expectations.

OBJECTIVES

SeaU aims to establish an operational methodology that will combine information extracted from the current system of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images with other sources of data, including algae information in terms of optical imagery or recent algae forecasts, vessel identifi cation, ocean-current records from other sources, oil spill statistics, and databases of major ship lanes, oil installations, pipelines, etc. The project will investigate the optical refl ection combined with the SAR backscatter in order to distinguish between oil spills, low wind areas and algae blooms. The effi cacy of this combined approach is greater than from SAR backscatter alone.

SeaU will experiment with the combination of SAR with different resolution optical images in order to investigate the benefi ts of increased spatial resolution. One assumption is that high resolution optical images are potentially available in coastal areas, while medium resolution optical images are available both in open oceans and coastal areas. The higher spatial resolution may prove useful close to islands and coastlines by capturing the outlines of algae blooms, but an assessment must be made of whether this matches the actual resolution requirements in an operational system. The horizontal gradients and presence

of fi laments extracted from such optical observations will then be used to build up a ‘reliability mask map’ in order avoid potential false alarms in slick detection. This will fulfi l one of the overriding objectives, as Dr Gunnar Pedersen, coordinator of the project, highlights: “The implication of this is more effective and reliable oil detection, thus reducing costs associated to verifi cation of oil spills”.

RETURN TO THE SOURCE

While it is crucial to detect oil spills early to prevent extensive environmental damage and high cleanup costs, the project also recognises the importance of tracing a spill back to its origin to encourage and empower end-users to initiate actions to catch and prosecute the polluters. Therefore, another focus will be to develop methodology and prototype systems to identify the pollution source based on the coupling of drift modelling with different identifi cation systems. This identifi cation will require backward tracking and modelling from a given moment of observation. As a result, methods for the integration of such results with source information like AIS will be established, tested and validated through service trials.

In addition to pollution source identifi cation, the project will also establish enhanced alerts

FIGURE 2. Radar image(spaceborn SAR) identifyingan oil spill (black line) in Skagerak, southern Norway.

52 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

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FIGURE1. Skip positions and tracks identifi ed with land-based Automatic Identifi cation System (AIS) in western France.

The project recognises the

importance of tracing a spill back

to its origin to encourage and

empower end-users to initiate

actions to catch and prosecute

the polluters

INTELLIGENCE

SEAUMULTISENSOR SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES FOR OIL POLLUTION MONITORING AND SOURCE IDENTIFICATION

OBJECTIVES

Since 2007 EMSA has provided the pan-European CleanSeaNet (CSN) satellite-based oil slick detection service to EC and EFTA member states. SeaU project will improve the current state-of-the-art methodology for satellite-based oil spill detection and to demonstrate how these improvements can contribute to the development of a sustainable downstream service. This shall be done by integrating new geoinformation products into innovative methods for oil spill detection and demonstrating a next-generation service.

PARTNERS

Kongsberg Satellite Services, Norway (Coordinator) • e-Geos, Italy • Collecte Localisation Satellites, France • Norwegian Computing Centre, Norway • Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Norway • EDISOFT, Portugal • ACRI-ST, France

FUNDING

EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) – contract no. 263246

CONTACT

Dr Gunnar PedersenProject Coordinator

Kongsberg Satellite ServicesPrestvannveienTromsøNorway

T +47 77 60 0250E [email protected]

GUNNAR PEDERSEN has a PhD in Marine Biology from the University of Tromsø (1995). He has experience working with oil contingency plans, and was employed in Kongsberg Satellite Services in 2009 as Business Development Manager. He works mainly with development and new uses of Earth Observation data.

including risk assessments based on the combination of the drift prediction information and satellite observations in order to enable users to initiate countermeasures to prevent the spill from reaching the beaches and thus avoiding the potentially harmful impact on environmentally sensitive areas such as seabird colonies or wildlife reserves.

INTEGRATION ANDVALIDATION OF RESULTS

The project outline includes a specifi ed work package for the integration and validation of any technology and multidisciplinary information in accordance with relevant standards and directives. Pedersen describes how this process will work: “We will compare the current approaches and then integrate improved algorithms and procedures from the scientifi c part of the project into the new processing chains hosted by the operational partners, before fi nally carrying out a comparison of the updated processing chains”.

To observe the true impact of the project, the consortium began by performing a benchmark test based on the existing operational chains, and they are set to perform another benchmark test at the end to include all new information and systems developed during the course of the SeaU initiative. It is hoped that this test will demonstrate the desired increase in accuracy in terms of reducing false alarms and an improved ability to localise detected spills.

USER INVOLVEMENT

The project has a strong emphasis on user participation. The main users currently include national pollution control authorities in Europe, served via the EMSA CSN service, the

offshore oil industry, particularly in Northern Europe, and a few other commercial service brokers. In preparation for the launch of the project, the consortium obtained statements of involvement from user groups who will contribute to the testing, verifi cation and documentation of the improvements through dedicated trials. The

service providers’ chains will be upgraded with the outcomes of these trials and user involvement will be maintained and monitored to demonstrate whether the results improve upon the existing service and thus fulfi l the project objectives. A new alert mechanism for wildlife is proposed, and would include: fi ltering of detected pollutions; transmission of pollution characteristics; transmission of high resolution winds; and transmission of traffi c information and the likely sources.

COMBINED EXPERTISE

The SeaU consortium is composed of seven members from four European Countries and represents a balanced distribution of industry and research institutions. All partners have major experience in the Earth Observation domain, being forefront industry players in the area of satellite-based services and systems (KSAT, e-Geos, EDISOFT and CLS), remote sensing and oceanography research (Norwegian Computing Centre, NERSC, ACRI-ST). Utilising the skills of these partners and testing the outcomes of users, the fi nal objective of SeaU is to propose a next-generation operational concept taking advantage of the increasing GMES contributing missions (optical and SAR/multi-polarisation) and constellation of satellites. This will provide recommendations for future mission operations concepts and sensor implementation, thus leaving an important legacy in its wake.

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