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OilWatch Sees Pollution on the Seas
01 Jul 2002
Shipping accidents make up only about 20% of the total oil pollution at sea, with illegal activities such as the discharge of bilge and ballast water tanks making up a far greater percentage.
The resulting oil slicks often go unnoticed, but agencies charged with the surveillance of national waters, including coast guards, navies, pollution control authorities, environmental agencies, or self-policing industrial consortia, can now benefit from a new product called OilWatch, which has already monitored coastal waters of the UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
QinetiQ developed the OilWatch service in partnership with British industry to provide timely, relevant information about oil spill incidents to customers.
Using satellite-based radar to detect ocean oil slicks, OilWatch delivers details of them to the customer's desk via the Internet within one to two hours of acquiring incident data. These details, including location and size of a slick and any marine vessels that may be involved, enables subscribers to either verify vessel activity or boost monitoring activity to increase the chances of catching and prosecuting an offender.
All of the OilWatch software tools use data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites because of their capacity for wide area surveillance. SAR satellites also enable all-weather, round the clock operation and are unaffected by cloud or fog. Detailed imagery of the spillage can also be provided by the OilWatch system.
The OilWatch service draws on many years of research and development in conjunction with satellite operators and receiving stations, such as QitetiQ's own ground station at West Freugh in Scotland.
MJ Information No: 17227
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