NESDIS Suspected Oil: Marine Pollution Surveillance Reports (MPSR) Metadata

The Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB) of NOAA/NESDIS detects oil slicks in satellite imagery over U.S. waters (and international waters when requested by OR&R) in order to meet the NOAA Office of Response & Restoration (OR&R) need for oil spill information. The Marine Pollution Surveillance Report (MPSR) is issued by SAB satellite analysts when accidental or intentional marine oil spills are detected in imagery. The Marine Pollution Surveillance Program consists of manual detection and mapping of oil slicks primarily through the use of available moderate to high resolution optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery.

The Marine Pollution Surveillance Report (MPSR) is a product package created in the NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB) when a marine anomaly is identified in U.S. waters or approaches that’s believed to be the result of an accidental or intentional oil discharge. Reports are also generated for marine debris fields on an event driven, requested basis. The complete MPSR package includes 2 JPEG maps, 1 KML, GIS files, and a text file. Oil spill monitoring operations are supported 24x7x365. These products are then used to provide surveillance support to oil spill responders working in U.S. waters.

NESDIS/ OSPO / SPSD Office of Satellite and Product & Services Division/ Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB)

Building: NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction

The NOAA/NESDIS Satellite-Derived Surface Oil Analysis Products are experimental products and have not been subjected to the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service's normal quality control or quality assurance procedures and do not meet the criteria for standards of official NESDIS products. They are available on a best effort basis and their quality, completeness, availability and/or timeliness cannot be guaranteed. No warranties are expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, completeness, availability or reliability of the information provided. They are released for limited public use as experimental data to be used only with appropriate caution. The user assumes the entire risk related to use of the information. In no event will NESDIS be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use of the data.In addition, reference in the NESDIS Surface Oil Analysis Products to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Extents include: US Waters and their approaches. International waters when requested by NOAA's Office of Response & Restoration (OR&R).

MPSR data from the Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) can be obtained through the website: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/ocean/marinepollution/

We request that you credit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) & National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service/Satellite Analysis Branch (NESDIS/SAB) when you use these data in a report, publication, or presentation.

Please credit NOAA/NESDIS if data is used in other products or other ways. Caveats such as the fact that the product is still experimental should also be included if the product is being redisplayed.

Imagery may include: Optical imagery from MODIS (NASA), VIIRS (NOAA), Sentinel-2 (ESA) and Landsat (USGS), ASTER (NASA), as well as SAR imagery from Sentinel-1 (ESA) and RADARSAT-2 (MDA) are routinely scanned for possible oil anomalies. The advantage of optical imagery is the ability to generate wavelength combinations that help distinguish oil from vegetation and other false positives. Disadvantages include being limited to daylight hours and cloud free weather conditions. SAR imagery allows for the detection of oil overnight and through clouds. Disadvantages associated with SAR include difficulty in positively identifying the substance as oil rather than vegetation or other false positives. Once a possible area of oil is identified, a wide array of ancillary data is consulted to help confirm the presence of oil.

Uncertainty in oil detection relies on environmental conditions and satellite imagery quality. Specific remarks on accuracy are included in each report.

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The Marine Pollution Surveillance Report (MPSR) is created in near real time by an operational analyst when an anomaly believed to be oil is identified in satellite imagery. SAB analysts manually integrate data from numerous imagery sources including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and high resolution visible imagery along with various ancillary data sources. The result is a quality-controlled display of the locations of possible detected oil on the surface of the ocean.