Evidence of Hydrogen Contamination from the Burgan Oil Field, Kuwait-Interpretations from Thermal Remote Sensing Data

Application of thermal remote sensing for mapping hydrocarbon polluted sites was studied. This was achieved by mono-window algorithm for land surface temperature (LST) measurements, using multi-date band 6 data of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). It was demonstrated that LST measurements using Landsat TM data could be useful in mapping oil polluted surfaces as a result of changes in the emissivity of the sand surface. The methodology presented could be adopted for detecting oil polluted surfaces on land and as spills in oceans and near the ports. The technology could be used for quick monitoring of spatially large areas, using similar algorithm for other satellite data, where the temporal coverage was quick.