DMCii aid Philippines oil disaster response
DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) was on duty last week as the Emergency On-Call Officer (ECO) for the International Charter; Space & Major Disasters.
DMCii Operations Manager, Gary Crowley was alerted late last night by an official activation of the Charter (Call no. 129) in response to serious oil leakage from a tanker that has sunk in the Panay Gulf, Philippines. He tasked Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors on two satellites, ENVISAT (European Space Agency) and Radarsat (Canadian Space Agency) to acquire images of the area.
Map showing the location of the sunken ship
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) is particularly useful for imaging at night or through cloud, and can detect changes in the surface roughness of the ocean, which can help to identify areas of oil slick. Analysis of SAR images is complex, because wind shadows also create smooth areas, which can be mistaken for oil.
The SAR images will be delivered to a designated Project Manager who will analyse the data, and prepare maps of the affected zone to give to disaster response teams on site.
The Guardian reported ?The oil tanker sank last Friday, with some 2m litres of thick bunker fuel on board. Two of the 20 crew are still missing. Only one of the 10 fuel containers is thought to have ruptured but officials fear the stresses of lying on the seabed 900m (3,000ft) below the surface could causes the other containers to leak.?
A beach on Guimaras island in the Philippines is covered with bunker oil from the Sunrise 1 oil tanker spill.
Photograph: Ariel Catubig/AP
The SAR image acquired by the European Space Agency with ENVISAT clearly shows the black areas of smooth water surface created by the oil spill.
The SAR image to the left was delivered to the Project Manager, UNOSAT, which then created a map of the area. More information is available on the Charter Website for Call 129.
Photos of the Philippines clean up can be found at the BBC and the breaking news from Reuters. Some intereresting blogs are found at Greenpeace
Find out more about DMC activities at www.dmcii.com
Mon, 14.01.2008 14:42
Just Silver Martin?!