Exemples de l’apport de l’observation satellitaire au suivi de pollutions marines côtières

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeA complete system of detection, survey and forecast of oil spill drift has been set up for the Alpes Maritimes coastal areas. It has been successfully operated during summer 2006. Main components of the system are the detection through analysis of radar images acquired from space, the triggering of an alert, the forecast of oil spill drift for the next 48 hours following the event and the associated risk at coast. In this paper we were focused on the forecast component that becomes rather complex in areas where wind effects on the spill is at the same order of magnitude of currents. The near shore modeling is also difficult due to the complexity of topographic and bathymetric fields. We have developed a way associating deterministic modelling and statistical analysis in order to face both strong requirements in terms of near real time operation of the system and the request to characterise the results in a probabilistic way. Results are encouraging for the operational aspects as well as for scientific outcomes. Observation from space has allowed us initialisation of forecast simulation and, on top of that, it was possible to perform qualitative estimates of the results of forecast by using two successive available images.