Photographer help needed on Gulf coast Oil response

[Roger Clark]

I'm looking for volunteer photographers who might help in a project regarding
the oil spill on the Gulf coast.

I am leading a study of the oil spill using and an advanced NASA sensor
called the Airborne Visible and Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS).

At present we need photographers who live near:

1) Long Beach, Mississippi (near Gulfport)
2) Dauphin Island, Alabama,
3) Pensacola, Florida (Pensacola Beach)

We have designated areas on these beaches as standards to calibrate
the AVIRIS data. We need periodic photographs of these areas to be sure
they will remain clear of oil, equipment or other things so they
may continue to be used for calibration. So basically, we want
photographs of our calibration areas as often as you can visit
(daily, weekly) and in particular on the days we fly (best weather
days).

We flew these beaches in May and will be flying over them in July.

The AVIRIS system will initially be flown on a twin otter aircraft at
20,000 feet then on an ER2 aircraft (an extended range version of a U2)
at 28,000 and 65,000 feet. The different altitudes are to get a balance
of spatial resolution and coverage (higher altitude = more coverage;
lower altitude = better spatial resolution). The scientific goals
include characterizing coastal wetlands impacted by oil (the May flights
measured most coastal wetlands pre oil impact). Second, are flights
over the oil spill to characterize the oil, its location and volume.

The AVIRIS instrument measures a UV to near infrared (about 5 times longer
wavelength than green light) spectrum with enough spectral resolution that
we can determine chemistry, including detecting some of the hydrocarbon molecules
in the oil. The difficulty in the measurement is the absorption by gases in our
atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane), the solar spectrum,
and scattering by aerosols in the atmosphere (haze). The calibration sites
allow us to remove the effects of the atmosphere, and confirm the solar spectrum
was compensated correctly (it varies by a small amount).

We visit each calibration site periodically and measure the UV to near-infrared
spectrum of our selected areas. A 2-person team is currently in the region measuring
the beaches in preparation for the upcoming flights. But we are based in
the Denver, Colorado area and can't visit the beaches as often as we want.

More information about the technology and how we apply it is described here:

USGS: http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov/
AVIRIS: http://aviris.jpl.nasa.gov/

Papers/web sites describing some of our efforts are:

A Method for Qualitative Mapping of Thick Oil Spills Using Imaging Spectroscopy
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1101/

National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group Sub-Team Outline
http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/...e&PageID=34639
(see the Mass Balance Team)

Estimated Minimum Discharge Rates of the Deepwater Horizon Spill—Interim
Report to the Flow Rate Technical Group from the Mass Balance Team
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1132/

If you are willing and able to help (the on site time when you visit would
probably be less than about 10 minutes), please email me and I will send you
more information on where the sites are located. This effort is a volunteer
effort only with no pay or compensation, the compensation is in knowing you
helped in this disaster situation.

My email is:
rclark at usgs.gov

Thanks for any help,
Roger

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Other web sites of interest:
http://www.usgs.gov/deepwater_horizon/

[Jackie Schuknecht]

If I lived down near there I would be there in a heartbeat Roger.

[Lorant Voros]

I wish I was there to help and to be able to do something about this. Good luck, Roger.