Oil Spills Tracking Through Texture Analysis from MODIS Imagery

Detection and tracking of oil spills using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have received a considerable attention over the past few years, notably due to the wide area coverage, short revisit frequency and free of charge. Oil spills appear different signatures from the normal seawater depending on the spectral and spatial characteristics of remote sensing image. This paper uses a local difference box-counting (DBC) algorithm to construct the textural fractal map (TFM) from the MODIS imagery. Based on that, the oil spills can be highlighted, thus to be easily extracted. The DBC approach is verified over Mediterranean Sea on MODIS images in sun glint condition. Results show that the sun glint effects on the MODIS imagery have been removed from its fractal textural map. Following that, two oil slicks can be easily extracted from temporal MODIS TFMs for mapping their trajectories.