Operational satellite monitoring of oil spill pollution in the southeastern Baltic Sea

Abstract

Shipping activities in the Baltic Sea, including oil transport and oil handled in harbors, have a number of negative impacts on the marine environment and coastal zone. Oil spills cause the contamination of seawater, shores, and beaches, which may persist for several months and represent a threat to marine resources. One of the main tasks in the ecological monitoring of the Baltic Sea is an operational satellite and aerial detection of oil spillages, determination of their characteristics, establishment of the pollution sources and forecast of probable trajectories of the oil spill transport. In June 2003 LUKOIL-Kaliningradmorneft initiated a pilot project, aimed to the complex monitoring of the southeastern Baltic Sea, in connection with a beginning of oil production at continental shelf of Russia in March 2004. Since June 2004 the operational monitoring was performed on the base of daily satellite remote sensing (AVHRR NOAA, MODIS, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, ENVISAT ASAR imagery) of SST, sea level, chlorophyll concentration, mesoscale dynamics, wind and waves, and oil spills. 110 oil spills have been detected in the time period between June 2004 and March 2005. Some of the results of a complex approach to the ongoing monitoring of the southeastern Baltic Sea devoted, basically, to the oil spills detection by means of ASAR ENVISAT data and forecast of probable trajectories of the oil spill transport based on the interactive numerical model Seatrack Web are discussed.