Oil slick morphology derived from AVIRIS measurements of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Implications for spatial resolution requirements of remote sensors

Using fine spatial resolution (~7.6m) hyperspectral AVIRIS data collected over the Deepwater Horizon 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 (≤50μm but thicker than sheen, 50–200μm, 200–1000μm, and >1000μm), the median lengths, widths, and length/width ratios of these classes ranged between 22 and 38m, 7–11m, and 2.5–3.3, 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. •Statistics of oil slick length, width, and length/width ratio are generated.•Results are based on AVIRIS observations of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.•Fractional oil coverage is estimated for sensors with different resolutions.•Landsat-like sensors may provide a compromise between resolution and coverage.