Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick Sampling Photos from 2016-2018 Field Research

Field research from 2016, 2017, and 2018 collected these photos as part of a NOAA study on detecting oil thickness and emulsion mixtures using remote sensing platforms. The data were collected at the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20), a site with a chronic oil discharge, and are hosted in NOAA's Environmental Response Management Applications (ERMA). This research was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Oil Spill Preparedness Division.

Use Cases

• Training computer vision models for oil slick detection based on aerial imagery.
• Calibrating remote sensing platforms for oil thickness estimation based on surface oil characterization data.
• Analyzing emulsion mixtures in chronic oil discharges based on field-collected water chemistry data.

Strengths

• Data is part of a multi-year study spanning 2016-2018, providing temporal context.
• Research was conducted by NOAA and funded by multiple U.S. government agencies, suggesting authoritative collection.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file formats are PDF and HTML, which may not be directly machine-readable for analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

Synoptic collection of satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, oil and water chemistry, and subsurface oil slick data during field research.

Time Range

2016-2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:26:16.142079; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20), Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, North America.