Oil slick morphology derived from AVIRIS measurements of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Implications-for spatial resolution requirements of remote sensors Marine Pollution Bulletin

Using fine spatial resolution (similar to 7.6 m) hyperspectral AVIRIS data collected over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we statistically estimated slick lengths, widths and length/width ratios to characterize oil slick morphology for different thickness classes. For all AVIRIS-detected oil slicks (N = 52,100 continuous features) binned into four thickness classes (<= 50 mu m but thicker than sheen, 50-200 mu m, 200-1000 mu m, and >1000 mu m), the median lengths, widths, and length/width ratios of these classes ranged between 22 and 38 m, 7-11 m, and 2.5-3.3, respectively. The AVIRIS data were further aggregated to 30-m (Landsat resolution) and 300-m (MERIS resolution) spatial bins to determine the fractional oil coverage in each bin. Overall, if 50% fractional pixel coverage were to be required to detect oil with thickness greater than sheen for most oil containing pixels, a 30-m resolution sensor would be needed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.