Oil spill reaches Loop Current
Scientists monitoring the US oil spill with the European Space Agency (ESA) Envisat radar satellite say that it has entered the Loop Current, a powerful conveyor belt that flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida.
Dr Bertrand Chapron of Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, said: ‘With images from space, we have visible proof that at least oil from the surface of the water has reached the current.’
Chapron and Dr Fabrice Collard of France’s CLS have been combining surface roughness and current-flow information with Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data of the area to monitor the proximity of the oil to the current.
A processed ASAR image below, which was acquired on 18 May, clearly shows a long tendril of the oil spill (outlined in white) extending down into the Loop Current.
Collard said: ‘We processed the images to display surface features such as variations in roughness and velocity, which provides insight into the spatial structure of the spill and its transport by surface currents.’
From the ASAR images of 12 and 15 May, the oil spill was observed stretching closer to the Loop Current, raising concerns that it could reach the current and be carried south towards coral reefs in the Florida Keys.
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