GOM SAB: Oil Slick Delineation from Remote Sensing in the Gulf of Mexico

NOAA's Deepwater Horizon Lessons Learned Studies produced this dataset on methods to estimate oil slick coverage and thickness. The research combined satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface characterization, and chemistry data from a chronic oil discharge site in the Mississippi Canyon. Field research for this data was undertaken in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Use Cases

• Train models to detect oil slicks based on satellite and airborne imagery mentioned in the description
• Analyze oil thickness and emulsion mixtures based on surface characterization data
• Study chronic oil discharge patterns based on data from the ongoing MC20 site
• Validate remote sensing platforms for environmental response based on synoptic collection methods

Strengths

• Data is part of a formal NOAA study funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior and BSEE.
• Research combines multiple data collection methods: satellite, airborne, surface, and subsurface.
• Field research was conducted over a three-year period (2016-2018).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific Gulf of Mexico study site.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Synoptic collection of satellite and airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, and chemistry data from field research.

Time Range

Field research undertaken in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:25:28.852625; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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