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

NOAA's MC20 Oil On Water Sampling Photos were collected as part of the Deepwater Horizon Lessons Learned Studies on detecting oil thickness and emulsion mixtures. The data include synoptic satellite and airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, and chemistry from field research at the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 in 2016, 2017, and 2018. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and NOAA.

Use Cases

• Training oil slick detection algorithms based on satellite and airborne imagery.
• Developing methods to estimate oil slick coverage and thickness from imagery.
• Analyzing surface oil characterization and chemistry data for spill response.
• Studying chronic oil discharge patterns at a specific offshore site.

Strengths

• Data collected as part of a formal NOAA study with funding from BSEE and DOI.
• Includes multiple data types: satellite imagery, airborne imagery, and surface characterization.
• Field research conducted over three years (2016, 2017, 2018) at a site with chronic discharge.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2016, 2017, 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:31:47.859977; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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