Chuanmin Hu Lian Feng Gregg A. Swayze Jamie Holmes George Graettinger Ian R. MacDonald Oscar Garcia Ira Leifer Shaojie Sun 2016 <p>Using fine spatial resolution (~ 7.6 m) hyperspectral AVIRIS data collected over the <i>Deepwater Horizon</i> 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 (&le; 50 &mu;m but thicker than sheen, 50&ndash;200 &mu;m, 200&ndash;1000 &mu;m, and &gt; 1000 &mu;m), the median lengths, widths, and length/width ratios of these classes ranged between 22 and 38 m, 7&ndash;11 m, and 2.5&ndash;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.</p> application/pdf 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.12.003 en Elsevier Oil slick morphology derived from AVIRIS measurements of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Implications for spatial resolution requirements of remote sensors article