DiRT
Exploration
deep-blue
The World-View 3 satellite was successfully launched earlier this year. WV3 is a platform with 27 spectral bands shown above.
Visible light is collected for pixels with a spatial resolution of just over 1m. Visible light towards the blue and deep-blue region of the spectrum is useful for direct mapping offshore oil and gas seeps due to significant penetration in clear seawater.
Radar has been proposed as a remote sensing technique for oil and gas seep detection but has no penetration in salty water and interacting currents can generate false anomalies.
As an example of the utility of visible light, consider the Google Earth image of Santa Barbara opposite together with structure inferred from the deep blue and blue bands of satellite data.
The photograph flagged on the central off-shore structure above is drilling platform Holly.
Closer to home, predicting deep-blue response from other spectral bands reveals features that may be of interest in off-shore oil exploration and mining.
