Earth observation data to support environmental surveillance and safety offshore in particular related to oil spill, and search and rescue in remote areas

The objective of the ISSN (Intelligent Sensor and Satellite Network) study, was the investigation of the technical feasibility and commercial viability of a flexible and reliable intelligent sensor network where satellites are among the nodes in the network. The services provided data from local sensor networks, satellite communication and Earth observation data to support environmental surveillance and safety offshore in particular related to oil spill, and search and rescue in remote areas. ISSN was used to provide an oil spill detection and monitoring service, which constituted the focus of the subsequent proposed demo project too. ISSN also provided an infrastructure for other (third party) services and had a number of potential application areas in connection with offshore oil & gas exploration and production, environmental surveillance in general, safety, search and rescue, transportation etc. The end users’ main concerns were oil spill detection, monitoring and minimising of the damage when a situation occurs. However, the same system could also be used for other applications such as search and rescue in remote areas or observation and monitoring for situational awareness using imaging technology and communication between the sensor network and the responsible parties.