Technician Dale Bowser checks out the B-200 while in Gulfport, Miss., during a deployment over the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. (Mike Wusk/NASA, Daily Press / May 9, 2010)
But as the nation’s worst ever oil spill continues to foul the Gulf of Mexico, the agency known for space travel has turned its eyes to the sea.
NASA scientists, including a team from Langley Research Center in Hampton, have been monitoring the spill for weeks. They provide updated images of the spill’s reach and are pioneering ways to measure the amount of oil beneath the water’s surface.
“We’re still in the research mode,” said Yongxiang Hu, a Langley scientist. “But we see a lot of potential in this.”
Seven weeks ago, Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 oil rig workers. Federal disaster responders called on NASA to provide images of the leak, which is now estimated at 12,000 to 17,000 barrels a day.
Using satellites such as the Langley-led CALIPSO — Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation — NASA takes pictures of the spill from space.
The satellite, orbiting Earth up to 15 times a day for more than three years, provides an accurate measurement of the gulf prior to the spill. It also enables scientists to closely monitor where oil slicks are headed.
The information will be used by many agencies. For example, states rely on the data to decide where to place containment booms, and wildlife officials use the maps to close fishing grounds. It also will help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determine how much coastal wetlands are destroyed.
NASA complements the satellite data with measurements from airplanes; Langley scientists three weeks ago flew over the spill with a high-powered laser and camera. Like CALIPSO, the instruments were built to measure air pollution.
The laser emits a ray of light in the atmosphere and then captures how air particles scatter or absorb the light. The camera measures polarized light to get a more accurate reading of the air particles’ reflective and absorptive properties.
Instead of looking at air particles, scientists directed the laser at the gulf surface. The laser, which can dive 60 meters in open water, reacts differently when reflecting off oil. The data may enable scientists to determine how thick and deep the oil is, a question that has vexed the scientific community since the spill began.
“A lot of this is exploratory,” said Chris Hostetler, the Langley scientist supervising the effort. “The instruments were not originally designed for this.”
In addition to oil, scientists can measure the density of phytoplankton, which may help them predict and react to algal blooms.
The effort is being funded by NASA’s Gulf of Mexico Initiative, an $18 million collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory and NOAA. The agencies are trying to create a spaceborne monitoring system to detect and measure future oil spills, as well as changes in phytoplankton.
This article is available here.
