Environmental monitoring of coastal and oceanic areas with orbital sensors

• Main Authors: Patrícia Genovez, Alexandre T. Politano, Cristina M. Bentz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia 2005-04-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Cartografia
• Subjects: Orbital remote sensing; sensor synergy; synthetic aperture radar; ocean monitoring.
• Online Access: http://www.rbc.ufrj.br/_pdf_57_2005/57_1_07.pdf

PETROBRAS is using spaceborne multi-sensor remote sensing for its sea surface monitoring program at the Campos, Santos and Espírito Santo basins, southeastern Brazilian coast. Ocean color (SeaWiFS and MODIS), thermal infrared (NOAA/AVHRR), scatterometer (QuikSCAT) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (RADARSAT-1 and ASAR/ENVISAT) data were integrated in order to detect and characterize different sorts of marine pollution and meteo-oceanographic phenomena. The near real time processing and delivery of the radar data allowed the timely in-situ verification and sampling of the remotely detected events. The integrated analysis of these dataset presents an important decision tool for emergencies, as well for the elaboration of contingency plans and evaluation of the oil industry activity impacts.