GOM TRACS 2016-11-16 1000' Oil Class: Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick Data

NOAA's GOM TRACS dataset contains data on oil slick coverage and thickness from the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20). The data were collected as part of the Deepwater Horizon Lessons Learned Studies using satellite and airborne imagery, surface characterization, and chemistry from 2016 to 2018. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and NOAA.

Use Cases

• Training machine learning models for oil slick detection based on satellite and airborne imagery.
• Analyzing oil emulsion mixtures and thickness for environmental impact assessment.
• Developing synoptic methods for oil spill monitoring and response planning.

Strengths

• Data collection involved multiple methods: satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface characterization, and chemistry.
• Research was conducted at a real-world, chronic oil discharge site (MC20) active since 2004.
• Project was funded by authoritative U.S. agencies: DOI, BSEE, and NOAA.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Field research involving synoptic collection of remote sensing and in-situ data.

Time Range

2016, 2017, and 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:24:45.938605; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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