Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick Field Photos from 2016-2018

2016-2018 field research data collected by NOAA as part of the Deepwater Horizon Lessons Learned Studies. The dataset includes photos from oil-on-water sampling at the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20) site, aimed at developing methods to estimate oil slick coverage and thickness. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Use Cases

• Training computer vision models for oil slick detection based on aerial and surface imagery.
• Developing methods to estimate oil thickness and emulsion mixtures based on field-collected characterization data.
• Calibrating satellite and airborne remote sensing platforms based on synoptic ground-truth data.
• Studying chronic oil discharge patterns and environmental impacts based on multi-year field research.

Strengths

• Data collected over a three-year period (2016, 2017, 2018) for temporal analysis.
• Part of a structured NOAA study integrating satellite, airborne, and surface characterization methods.
• Focuses on a specific, ongoing chronic oil discharge site (Mississippi Canyon lease block #20).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file formats are PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for direct 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

2016-2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 22:25:17.784374; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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