Reducing the number of offshore incidents that release oil or hazardous substances into the environment and optimizing the timeframe between detection and contingency during those incidents are the biggest challenges for the oil and gas industry. Important aspects of prevention and response include technological assessment of equipment and procedures. More even the actions and protocols for the detection and monitoring of oil spills. One action among all the above can be the key issue, that is to reduce the time between the detection and the action. Thinking on this issue so important to the industry it is quite clear that one of the segments that seem that need still to be developed is the detection phase. The increasing of a detection even more precise is crucial for an effective contingency action. Questions like the area of the spill, the thickness of the spill, the location of the source and the type of the oil, still come up recurrently during an emergency situation. In this poster presentation proposal we would like to present a new concept of integration technology for precise detection of the spill using airborne technology and HF radar. Airborne remote sensing in combination with real time data provided by coastal HF radars can be a powerful tool for precise oil spill detection. If in one hand, Airborne remote sensing can have on board sensors (far range and near range) that can identify (SLAR), measure the area (IR) and thickness of the spill (microwave radiometer), even during the night, in a single georeferenced base, the HF radar can provide information of a large area data from surface current (direction and intensity) that can optimize flight planning and predict next actions based on current prediction modeling. The airborne can survey the area in a wide coverage awareness situation or in a closer tactical decision making support. With all these tools integrated in one single cartographic base it is possible to meet the fundamental criteria of BAST(best available and safest technology) that encourage the industry to always search for the cutting edge technology for better and safer offshore operations.
