Gulf of Mexico oil slick captured by satellite
SSTL’s satellite imaging subsidiary DMCii has used its UK-DMC2 satellite to monitor the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
Satellite imagery is being supplied to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), and the US Geological Survey (USGS) following an activation of the International Charter : Space and Major Disasters.
UK-DMC2 Image (C) DMCii, 2010.
UK-DMC2 and its five siblings in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) of satellites are able to provide daily imaging of the oil slick if required, detecting changes in the spill and tracking changes in direction. Current reports indicate that the oil click is moving towards the Florida coastline, having already reached land and affected Louisiana fisheries.
The DMC satellites use specially designed SSTL imaging payloads to image the Earth at resolutions between 4m and 32m across an ultra-wide 600km-plus swath (width). DMCii knows the Gulf of Mexico well, having contributed important about flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Image showing flooding of Mississippi Delta 2005
DMCii responds to disaster “activations” from the charter on behalf of the UK Space Agency (formerly BNSC), you can find out more at the Charter's UK page.
The European Space Agency (ESA) Envisat radar satellite is also contributing valuable data about the oil slick. Find out more about DMCii's response and how Envisat is helping map the click on the BBC’s excellent Spaceman blog by Jonathan Amos.
This entry was posted by Robin Wolstenholme on Thursday, June 3. 2010 at 15:37.
and is filed under In the news.
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