Oil Spill Monitoring in Norilsk, Russia Using Google Earth Engine and Sentinel-2 Data

Oil spill accidents can cause various environmental issues, so it is important to quickly assess the extent and changes in the area and location of the spilled oil. In the case of oil spill detection using satellite imagery, it is possible to detect a wide range of oil spill areas by utilizing the information collected from various sensors equipped on the satellite. Previous studies have analyzed the reflectance of oil at specific wavelengths and have developed an oil spill index using bands within the specific wavelength ranges. When analyzing multiple images before and after an oil spill for monitoring purposes, a significant amount of time and computing resources are consumed due to the large volume of data. By utilizing Google Earth Engine, which allows for the analysis of large volumes of satellite imagery through a web browser, it is possible to efficiently detect oil spills. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of four types of oil spill indices in the area of various land cover using Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument data and the cloud-based Google Earth Engine platform. We assessed the separability of oil spill areas by comparing the index values for different land covers. The results of this study demonstrated the efficient utilization of Google Earth Engine in oil spill detection research and indicated that the use of oil spill index B ((B3+B4)/B2) and oil spill index C (R: B3/B2, G: (B3+B4)/B2, B: (B6+B7)/B5) can contribute to effective oil spill monitoring in other regions with complex land covers.

Automated summary

Oil spills can cause various environmental issues, so it is important to quickly assess the extent and changes in the area and location of the spilled oil. Satellite imagery can be used to detect oil spills by analyzing the reflectance of oil at specific wavelengths and developing oil spill indices. Google Earth Engine is a useful tool for efficiently analyzing large volumes of satellite imagery for oil spill detection. This study evaluated the applicability of four oil spill indices in different land cover areas and found that certain indices can effectively monitor oil spills in regions with complex land covers.