NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations

Oil-Spill Remote Sensing (Oil-SPIRES) Workshop

Location TBA

Previous Work of Members


NESDIS's Marine Pollution Surveillance Program

Mission Statement

Oil spills can cause enormous ecological and economic devastation, necessitating application of the best science and technology available, for which remote sensing plays a critical role in detection and monitoring of oil spills.

The FOSTERRS interagency working group seeks to ensure that during an oil spill, remote sensing assets (satellite/aircraft) and analysis techniques are quickly, effectively and seamlessly available to oil spills responders. FOSTERRS enables cooperation between agencies with core environmental remote sensing capabilities and academic experts to act as an oil spill remote sensing information clearinghouse.

The US government and its collaborators have a broad variety of aircraft and satellite sensors, imagery interrogation techniques and other technology that can provide indispensable remote sensing information to agencies, emergency responders and the public during an oil spill. Specifically, FOSTERRS will work to ensure that (1) suitable aircraft and satellite imagery is quicly made available in a manner that can be intergrated into oil spill detection and mitigation efforts, (2) existing imagery interrogation techniques are in the hands of those who will provide the 24 x 7 operational support and (3) efforts are made to develop new technology where the existing techniques do not provide oil spills responders with important information they need.