Abstract

The detection of oil seepage in oceans is of foremost importance from the exploration point of view since they are the primary manifestations of any sort of oil accumulation beneath the ocean bottom and offer clues as to where oil deposits may be located in ocean basin. In this paper, a general review of all the spectral regions in which remote sensing for the detection of oil in oceans are carried out along with their advantages and disadvantages had been discussed. Of the different passive sensors used for detection, the thermal infra red sensors can be designated as good sensors but for their poor discriminatory capacity between oil and oil like objects. It functions on the basis of variation of the thermal inertia of the oil with respect to the surrounding water which causes it to be visible to the thermal sensors. Among the active sensors, the laser fluoro -sensors working on the ultraviolet wavelength are useful due to its unique capability of identifying oil in all backgrounds like water, ice and snow. Most of the laser fluorosensors used for oil seepage detection uses a laser operating in the range between 0.3 to 0.355