Fluorescence-estimated Oil Concentration (Foil) in the Deepwater Horizon Subsea Oil Plume
Citation:
Conmy, R., A. Hall, D. Sundaravadivelu, B. Schaeffer, AND A. Murray. Fluorescence-estimated Oil Concentration (Foil) in the Deepwater Horizon Subsea Oil Plume. Presented at InterSpill Oil Conference, Amsterdam, North Holland, NETHERLANDS, June 21 - 23, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
To present findings from a recently accepted manuscript at the InterSpill Oil Conference. InterSpill is part of a triannual series of oil conferences. Audience is a mix of emergency responders, oil researchers, and policy experts.
Description:
Tracking the subsea oil plume during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWH) was conducted using in situ fluorescence via vertical profilers (n=1,157) and discrete sample chemical analyses (n=7,665). During monitoring efforts, discrete samples provided a coarse picture of the oil plume footprint, but the majority of the samples were below standard analytical detection limits for petroleum hydrocarbons. In situ fluorescence data improved the spatial and temporal resolution of the subsea oil plume characterization. Here we synthesized millions of continuous fluorescence data points from hundreds of contemporaneously discrete samples collected to demonstrate how fluorescence could serve as a proxy for Benzene-Toluene-Ethylbenzene-Xylene (BTEX) concentration. Data mined from Gulf Science Data repository were well correlated, and geographically and temporally aligned to provide direct comparisons. Described here are the methods used to calibrate the fluorescence data and to spatially approximate the three-dimensional geographic extent of the oil plume.