Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: Loop Current and the Gulf Stream

This Envisat image shows the Straits of Florida, the area where the Loop Current flows eastward out of the Gulf of Mexico (visible west of Florida) before joining the Gulf Stream and flowing along the eastern coastlines of the US and Newfoundland.

This image was acquired by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on 1 April 2010 at a resolution of 300 m.

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Credits: ESA

NASA Earth Observatory MODIS image: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The oil slick, which resulted from the accident at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, lingered near the Mississippi Delta on May 1, 2010.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.

The oil slick appears as a tangle of dull gray on the ocean surface, made visible to the satellite sensor by the Sun’s reflection on the ocean surface. Most of the oil slick occurs southeast of the Mississippi Delta.

An April 20 explosion at the rig led to a leak of crude oil at the sea floor, roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the ocean surface, where intense pressure impedes most mitigation efforts.

The New York Times reported that bad weather further hampered cleanup efforts as Gulf Coast communities braced for arrival of the oil along the shore. As much as 210,000 gallons (790,000 liters) of crude oil a day were leaking into the Gulf at the beginning of May, and that amount might increase.

ESA ENVISAT ASAR Image: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

In this radar image, acquired from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on 2 May 2010 03:45 UTC (Saturday night local time), the oil spill is visible due east of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge extending into the Gulf of Mexico.

The white dots are oil rigs and ships. Radar is especially suited for detecting oil spills because it works day and night, can see through clouds (unlike optical sensors) and is particularly sensitive to the smoother water surface caused by the oil.

Credits: ESA

NASA MODIS Images of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a wide-view natural-color image of the oil slick (outlined in white) just off the Louisiana coast.

The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent.

Sunglint -- the mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water -- enhances the oil slick’s visibility.

The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center MODIS Direct Broadcast system.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites are helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keep tabs on the extent of the recent Gulf oil spill with satellite images from time to time. NOAA is the lead agency on oil spills and uses airplane fly-overs to assess oil spill extent.

A semisubmersible drilling platform called the Deepwater Horizon located about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta experienced a fire and explosion at approximately 11 p.m. CDT on April 20. Subsequently, oil began spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to contain the spill continue today. NASA's Terra and Aqua satellite imagery has captured the spill in between cloudy days.

NOAA used data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument from the Terra satellite on April 26, 27 and 29 to capture the extent of the oil spill, which measured 600-square-miles. The MODIS instrument flies aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites.

ESA’s Envisat monitors oil spill

ESA Portal - ESA’s Envisat monitors oil spill

These ESA Envisat images capture the oil that is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico after a drilling rig exploded and sank off the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, USA, on 22 April.

In the black-and-white radar image the oil spill is visible as a dark grey whirl in the bottom right, while in the optical image it is seen as a white whirl. The Mississippi Delta is at top left, and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge extends out into the Gulf.
Officials report that about 1000 barrels of oil a day is escaping from a damaged oil well located 1.5 km under the drilling rig. By yesterday afternoon, the spill was covering an area some 77 km long and 63 km wide.