Using Agema's Thermovision 1000, thick and thin parts of an oil spill could be detected and containment operations directed at nighttime.
Agema has successfully tested its Thermovision 1000 infrared imaging equipment in an oil spill exercise off the Norwegian coast.
In the nighttime exercise, organized by the Norwegian operators' association NOFO and attended by representatives of oil companies and public bodies from around the world, Agema's forward looking infrared equipment was used to detect and track the oil spill.
It was mounted along with a normal video camera in a gimbal slung beneath a helicopter flying at a height of 500 ft. Signals from the two cameras were relayed by microwave link to the commander chip from which the anti-spill operations were directed. Because of the relatively long distances involved, a long-wave infrared band was used.
The information made available by the THV 1000 equipment was clearly superior to that from the video camera, according to Vicente Ribeiro, Agema's products manager: "The exercise showed that operations can be successfully carried out at night. Not only did the infrared image show clearly the location of the oil, it was also possible to distinguish between thick and thin layers, and to identify thin layers that could not be done visually".
The use of infrared does this by identifying differences in emissivity, and hence providing a temperature map, allowing different concentrations of oil to be detected. These contrasts are shown on screen by the shading of the image. The THV 1000 system also provides very good resolution, having a pixel rating some 50% greater than TV.
"The trials were better than I expected, particularly because we were able to detect the thickness of the oil," commented Henrik Sward, who operated the Thermovision 1000. "This made it much easier to give directions to the boats below."
It is not only at nighttime that the infrared system shows advantages. While other imaging systems are more or less dependent on the degree of light, infrared is not - the image it generates is practically the same, day or night, in fog or bad weather.
In other words, although TV can provide a satisfactory image for tasks such as detecting oil spills in day-time when weather conditions are good, it cannot compete with infrared over the range of conditions which are met day and night around the year, according to Ribeiro.
However, the infrared has shown that it can be an effective anti-pollution tool at sea in areas where winter nights are long and the weather generally inclement, such as in the Barents Sea or off mid-Norway.
For more information contact Vicente Ribeiro, Agema Infrared Systems: telephone 46 8 753 25 99 or fax 46 8 753 26 02.
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