Oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico
Oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico
TerraSAR-X mapped the oil-polluted area in the Gulf of Mexico in a series of images acquired on 9 July 2010. The environmental catastrophe started on 20 April 2010 when an explosion sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the shut-off valves on the wellhead could not be closed. The Artificial Barrier Island, an artificial island constructed by heaping dredged sand, situated to the east of the Chandeleur Islands, is easily recognisable in the TerraSAR-X imagery and it will soon be awash with spilled oil. “The imagery indicates that man-made constructions cannot offer much protection,” reports Susanne Lehner, team leader of radar oceanography at the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute (Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung; IMF).
