Chemical effluent & oil pollution alert and tracking

Cleopatra aims to identify best-case practice in terms of products, services, algorithms and models in the field of remote sensing monitoring of the marine environment. The State-of-the-art document shows the results of consortium investigations in the fields of Oil Spill" monitoring services, related projects and "Remote Sensing applied to Oil Spill detection, monitoring and management. The most relevant oil spill monitoring services and sea pollution are selected and evaluated in terms of kind of used data, products and user's availability. The most important companies and consortia are: - KSAT (former Tromsø Satellite Station), - QinetiQ (West Freugh Satellite ground Station) - RadarSat International Generally, a NRT service is provided (less than 2 hours after acquisition), 24 hours a day, either interactive or unattended imagery analysis modes, multimedia alert warning delivery (phone, fax, etc.) and spill detection probability. In the "Remote Sensing applied to Oil Spills" part of the document Airborne and space-borne sensors are reviewed and evaluated in terms of usefulness in responding to oil spills. The sensors/systems are the following: - Optical (Visible, Infrared, Ultraviolet) - Laser Fluorosensors (The SLEAF system) - Microwave Sensors (Radiometers, Radar, Scatterometers) - Acoustic Systems - Slick Thickness (The LURSOT system)

All the partners sent their contributions and suggestions for creating a common double page fly for easier advertisement of Cleopatra, divided into four sections: The problem, where are described the Mediterranean threats and the possible dangerous evolutions. The project, where the purposes, the activities and the expected results are described. The consortium, where the Cleopatra partners and users are listed with their main commitments. An operational test phase (Cleopatra in a response situation) is also attached Some colour figures enhance the project phases. The next dissemination steps are focused on: ·Dissemination of results through the already defined tailored channels (updating the web, Eurimage customer network, mailing, magazines, final CDs) ·Additional direct participation to additional events & new conferences (papers, posters, booths, etc.) ·Final direct demonstration to identified stakeholders (through Cleopatra partner local agreements) ·Eurimage newsletters

The validation phase of the project had the following purposes: - Present a high level description and evaluate the activities performed during the project - Assess the results generated by the project in terms of research and system development results - Assess the contribution of the project to the scientific and technical state of the art in pollution monitoring - Assess End Users perception of the project results in terms of capability to meet the user requirements - Provide a complete view of the project capability to meet its objectives - Provide constant monitoring to better manage project alignment with its strategic objectives - Provide a bridge between the Research activities and results and the system development activities R&D evaluation focused on assessing the results of each "line of research" in terms of completeness of the research, results obtained follow-on opportunities for promising areas and results directly exploited in the integrated system: 1) the project confirmed the suitability of radar imagery to detect oil slick evidences over the sea surface, in particular the usage of envisat wideswath products proved to be suitable also for large areas monitoring, the project proved that is useful to use alternate polarization products as well in some meteo-oceanic conditions 2) the project focused on studying new meteo-oceanic models and new model coupling techniques bringing a strong improvement both in meteoceanic forecast reliability and resolution 3) the project deeply studied the possibility to use radar or multispectral imagery in order to detect pollutants of different nature (i.e. heavy metals, ecc.), it proved to be difficult to detect those classes of pollutants only by using EO imagery. It demonstrated how it is possible to monitor side effects of sea pollution like clorophil levels 4) the usage of optical and multispectral imagery proved to be possible for oil damage mapping and evaluation at shore; port and vessel activities monitoring. Tools & Integrated system validation focused on assessing all the new applications and functionalities (PSM, QPJ, MPV and OSIS), their integration in the system and all the new ingested image data, the degree of integration of the system has been assessed along the entire detection/forecasting product life cycle taking into account the efficiency and effectiveness requirements expressed by the users: - the system proved to be capable to operate in a fully integrated manner along the product generation chain from image ingestion to drift analysis - the introduction of the new neural network algorithm capable of assessing the detection reliability proved to be a distinctive factor with respect to users requirements - end user evaluation confirmed the strong functional capabilities (especially for PSM) and usability of the tools - OS diction training proved to be a critical factor to allow an effective usage of the tools and the reliability of the detection.

All the partners are involved into a dissemination activity, both for scientific and applicative goals. The main topic arguments, of the all selected communication means can be summarized as follows: - The problem, describing the Mediterranean threats and the possible dangerous involutions - The project, showing the purposes, the activities and the scientific/operational results - The consortium and its integration listing the Cleopatra partners and users and showing their main commitments -The test phase V0 and V1 and their validation activity The other dissemination channels have been focusing on: -Advertisement fly of Cleopatra, -Dissemination of activity and results through the already defined tailored channels (updating the web, Eurimage customer network, CDs) - Direct participation to events and conferences (papers, posters, presentations) -·Final direct demonstration to identified stakeholders (Coast Guards, Provincia di Livorno, etc.) -Eurimage newsletter -During the first year nine presentations about Cleopatra purpose and activities were given, while during the second period ten presentations were given by the consortium technicians and managers at seminars, conferences and workshops. The goal was to disseminate the actual problems faced by the project, considering both the solution achieved and the persistent limitations. - Moreover the Eurimage Application Providers network (around 110 Value Adding companies distributed all over Europe and providing satellite based projects) directly received Cleopatra information at the annual user meeting.

In CLEOPATRA the main research theme on models is based on the idea that a significant part of the necessary improvement in pollutant drift modelling can be achieved by coupling, at a high level of resolution, the atmosphere, ocean and wave part of our model chains, with the aim of a better description of the atmosphere-sea surface boundary layer, that would then furnish a better estimation of the driving forces for surface pollutants (such as, but not only, oil slicks). In practice oil spill system are required to import and make use of gridded meteo-ocean data, since the spill can move through geographically varying meteo-ocean conditions. The performance of models during operations, especially during storms, is highly dependent on such input data and their quality. This part of the project, being, from a scientific point of view, a very advanced (and risky) one, has produced a deep literature review on model coupling issues, taking into account of physical studies, existing algorithmic tools and the State-of-the-Art of scientific/operational systems where model coupling strategies have been defined and implemented. CLEOPATRA system is constituted by meteorological, marine (i.e. hydrodynamic), surface waves and oil dispersal/diffusion model components. Traditionally, atmospheric forcing and winds are the main driving forces for the ocean, especially near the sea surface where more critical may be the concentration of pollutant substances such as oil. Here both surface ocean currents and wind stress acting directly on the slick cause the diffusion/dispersion of oil. Sea waves usually are not fully integrated in the model chain. The possibility to couple the atmospheric, ocean and wave models, which are strongly connected, has been analysed, with the aim of a better description of the dynamics of the sea surface boundary layer. In fact atmosphere to ocean interactions have mainly be studied in climatology (so when the spatial/temporal scales of interest are much bigger then the typical scale of an oil slick problem, that is local). In CLEOPATRA models chain, information at local scales (high resolution models) are derived from low resolution model. These models communicate each other via "standard" forcing, that is: atmosphere forcing (winds) drive sea waves, while both winds, surface heating and salinity fluxes (evaporation/ precipitation rates) cause the ocean dynamics (wind-driven and termohaline currents). Information for pollution spill is obtained from both winds, waves and, mainly, ocean currents. Here the feedback waves to atmosphere (in fact sea surface roughness, as determined by the sea motion, can have a strong influence on local winds), waves to ocean (meaning: how waves transfer momentum and turbulence to the oceanic scales - roughly speaking to the ocean currents), and ocean to waves (meaning: how currents influence sea waves, that may be important in some areas such as straits or in coastal areas) is studied. 'In situ' and 'Earth Observation' data can be used as (additional) initial condition to run the models (of course the spilling model can start from a satellite pollutant observation, but also from an accident notification). Finally the connection between 'in situ' and 'Earth Observation' data with models is also important for calibration/validation purposes.

The Cleopatra user community typology has not often unique/uniform information-based approach. Some of them are still not familiar with Remote Sensing technology (public authorities) and there is absence of multi-sensors and multi-source integration using Earth Observation data. The promotion and diffusion of this multi-approach project and the dissemination of related information, specifically addressed to users, both public and private (not only to research community) is the aim of the Cleopatra WEB. After planning meetings, the Cleopatra Web site was designed and implemented on the Eurimage server (www.eurimage.com/cleopatra/) The Web site has continuously been updated, especially using EU Commission recommendations through several integration phases. All the Cleopatra partners sent contributions/suggestions for improving the readability of the messages. All the related projects, the Commission frameworks and all the partners web pages are directly linked to Cleopatra web. Test cases, results, user presentations and documentation are available. A specific session, duly protected by password, enables the Cleopatra consortium members to use the not publishable documentation.

The conception and development of new generic and modular components improved the integration of the full system, on server side but also on remote application side. A more systematic usage of environment variables helps to share common and centralised configuration definitions. Self descriptive dataset using XML file definitions allows direct addition of new types of observations and products without having to develop new specific corresponding tools.·The creation of the new Generic Observation Server and associated java package eased a lot the development and integration of new remote applications, sharing new common structure and entry points to the system.

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