UREOMPS 2010

Research

Undergraduate Research Experience in Ocean, Marine and Polar Science 2010
Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City, North Carolina and University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
http://nia.ecsu.edu/ureomps2010/
Team: Autonomous GPS Guided Watercraft
Mentor: Dr. Eric Aker

 

Development of an Algorithm for Automatic Detection of Oil Slicks in Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery (SAR) in the Gulf of Guinea
Supervisor: Dr. George Wiafe.
Undergraduate research work submitted to the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, University of Ghana, Legon-Ghana.

The main objective of this research was to develop an adaptive oil spill detection algorithm using space-borne radar imageries from the Gulf of Guinea and be able to estimate the location and spatial extent of the detected oil slick.  The relevance of the use of space borne data for oil slick monitoring is evident in increased vessel traffic off the coast of West Africa.  Recent discovery of oil by some Gulf of Guinea states e.g. Equatorial Guinea and Ghana in addition to Nigeria further poses environmental threats to living coastal and oceanic resources.  Hence, there is an urgent need to develop monitoring capabilities to detect and provide information of the rate and direction of spread of oil.
 
[email protected]