Mediterranean hydrocarbons pollution from Landsat

Previous studies have shown that oil spills have been viewed by Landsat . The setection of oil is mainly due to the variations of reflectance between the sea and the oil spill. This result is used in the framework of the European Project "ARCHIMEDES", lead by the Joint Research Center (Ispra, Italy), which purpose is the study of the pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. 800 Landsat images obtained from 1972 to 1975 were examined. The cumulative area covered by the hydrocarbons spread each year in the Mediterranean Sea is crudely estimated to be 175,000 km2.