IncidentNews Home  >>  Incident  >>  Entry

Surveillance Issues

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS BASED ON THE MOST CURRENT DATA PROVIDED TO NOAA. 

Notes on Arabian Gulf Oil Surveillance Issues  
Since late January, the USCG AirEye aircraft have been deployed in Saudi Arabia
providing needed support to the Saudi Arabian and international response to the
massive Arabian Gulf oil spills.  The AirEye system is capable of multiple
remote sensing and imaging tasks, but the Side-Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR)
system has been the workhorse during the first phases of this operation.  The
initial mission of the AirEye was to observe the leading edge of the slick and
provide the Saudi Meteorological and Environmental Protection Administration
(MEPA), and MEPA's support team, with electronic oil surveillance capabilities.
  The data generated has provided crucial input to trajectory forecasts and to
estimates of the major shoreline oil impacts. This initial mission has been
completed.  Missions designed to look at the general distribution of sheens in
the entire Gulf have been terminated.  The USCG AirEye has more recently been
used to resolve and document where oil was still entering the northern Gulf. 
This mission has been partially completed.  AirEye image data indicating that
oil was still leaking from the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery Complex has been
confirmed by visual observations from a Navy helicopter.  Aerial photo
documentation of this situation is now needed.  The use of the AirEye's onboard
camera systems, during favorable smoke conditions, has been requested, however
this mission has not been completed.  Surface oil from damaged oil fields in the
coastal zone is accumulating in pools and streams at an estimated rate of
100,000 bbls/day for every million bbls/day lost.  As these oil flows drain
toward the Gulf, already stressed marine ecosystems are further threatened.  The
requested aerial photo documentation of the size and locations of these oil
pools and streams would be a useful tool for organizations and governments
attempting to prevent the oil from flowing into the Gulf.  As determined by the
system's operators, other AirEye sensor systems could be used to document and
assess the thickness of the accumulating oil pools and streams.  This
information would potentially be extremely useful in evaluating the threats from
these coastal sources.  Oil from uncontained sources continues to enter the
Arabian Gulf at a daily rate that would be catagorized by the US Coast Guard in
the United States as "major".  The need to isolate the sources and potential
sources of oil and the need to observe and track a spill of this estimated
volume is obvious.  The Aireye aircraft have provided vital imagery support
during all of the phases of this international response and are capable of
conducting the surveys needed in this phase.   However, it is understood that
the requested photo documentation of the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery releases and
the accumulating pools of oil in the oil fields in the coastal zone can be done
by any appropriately configured aircraft. The decision on what platform to use
should be made by the aircraft operators.  Similarly, aircraft operators should
decide on the best methods and type of airframe required to accomplish the
mission of tracking the slicks from these ongoing releases.