OCS Study MMS 95 - Data Center

Soules 1970 ; La Violette and Arnone 1988), the effects of ship wakes (Peltzer et al .1992), and the surface slicks formed by natural oil seepage (Estes et al . 1985) .Micro-layer surfactants originate from at least two sources : petroleum oil and thebiological activity of plankton and fish (Garrett 1986) . Although biologicalsurfactants are physically and chemically different from oil, and can bedistinguished remotely by their wave damping properties under some circumstances(Huhnerfuss et al . 1989), confirming the source of a remotely detected micro-layer isoften difficult or impossible . By comparing remote sensing images that showevident oil slicks with locations of chemosynthetic communities (Table 2.1) andsurface observation of floating oil (MacDonald et al . 1993) made it possible toconfirm the locations of perennial oil slicks from natural seepage .2 .4 .3 Remote Sensing MethodsThe remote sensing data base comprised images collected from three sensorsystems on board three satellites :1) European Radar Satellite (ERS-1, SAR, image)Orbit Frame Date9518 3051 8 May 19939475 3051 8 May 199311250 3051 9 Sept . 19932) Landsat - (Landsat 5, Thematic Mapper image)Path, RowCollection Time and Date22,41 1105 CST 31 July 19913) Space Shuttle (Atlantis with 120 mm format photograph, hand-held)Mission, Roll, and Frame Collection Time and DateSTS-30, 151, 028 1535-1538 CST ; 05 May 19892-10