GOM Oil On Water Sampling Photos from MC20 Field Research 2016-2018

NOAA's Deepwater Horizon Lessons Learned Studies collected these photos to develop methods for estimating oil slick coverage and thickness. The data are part of field research at the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20) undertaken in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, BSEE, and the Oil Spill Preparedness Division.

Use Cases

• Training computer vision models for oil slick detection based on aerial imagery mentioned in the description
• Developing algorithms to estimate oil thickness and emulsion mixtures based on surface oil characterization data
• Calibrating satellite and airborne remote sensing platforms using synoptic field data collection
• Studying chronic oil discharge patterns from a specific offshore site (MC20)

Strengths

• Data collection spans three years (2016, 2017, 2018) for temporal analysis.
• Research is part of a formal NOAA study with funding from multiple U.S. government agencies.
• Data integrates multiple collection methods: satellite, airborne, surface, and subsurface.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• 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

Field research involving synoptic collection of satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, oil and water chemistry, and subsurface oil slick data.

Time Range

2016, 2017, 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:29:58.390221; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20), Gulf of Mexico