Geosat starts up R&D on exploration sensor

Dave Koger
Koger Remote Sensing
Fort Worth

Rebecca L. Dodge
Geosat Research & Training
El Paso

A single compelling reason to employ remote sensing data is that the method is extraordinarily cost effective. It eliminates large areas from consideration-due to lack of some essential geologic property-and permits focusing of budget-heavy exploration techniques on only the most promising targets.

The approach is the same whether the objective is oil and gas, minerals, or water. Enhancing the growth of hyperspectral opportunities is the goal of a research and development initiative planned by the Geosat Committee Inc., a non-profit, government-industry-university consortium.

Hyperspectral data

The remote sensing community has used multispectral satellites for 26 years. They are sort of a high-tech version of aerial infrared photos.

The most popular multispectral satellite, Landsat Thematic Mapper, gathers seven "bands" of light spectra in prism like fashion from visible through infrared into thermal.

"Hyperspectral" means in excess of 100 bands. Such instruments are now flown in aircraft, but several will soon reside in space. Hyperspectral scanners chop up the spectra into finer windows. Moreover, they sample additional regions of light energy that were never "seen" before.

What hyperspectral data do

Hyperspectral instruments record the chemical constituents of soil, rock, and vegetation.

Every mineral, for instance, reflects light in a specific way. Each mineral can be identified by its reflective "signature." Simply put, hyperspectral imaging (combined with image processing and analysis) can identify target minerals and biota by the way the molecules composing these substances reflect and absorb light.

The business need

Several hyperspectral satellites will be launched in the next two years. This is timely in light of expanding compliance regulations, environmental sensitivity, and policy creation.

Hyperspectral imaging and interpretation are, nowadays, the most cost-effective and thorough means by which to examine the earth's surface-whether to document surface conditions or to compete for scarce, hard-to-find resources.

The non-profit, cooperative R&D initiative includes the following topics of commercial interest:

Oil and gas exploration

• Evaluate what is new that helps reduce risk.
• Calculate, at the parts per million level, oil spilled.
• Improve surface geologic mapping and interpretation even in areas that are thought to be well understood and well mapped.
• Oil and gas-related phenomena will be revealed by geobotanical anomalies not distinguishable in other types of data.

Oil and gas onshore

• Detail areas of faulting; land slides, slumps, mud flows, and other forms of mass movement.
• Hyperspectral will probably yield information on mineral manifestations of hydrocarbon escape other than ferric oxides ... (e.g. iron, carbonates, siderite, and ankerite detected by the narrow visible spectra; ammoniated feldspars and sulfates by infrared spectra, etc.).
• Stressed vegetation, altered soil color, toxic chemicals, surficial seeps, and manmade features associated with oil spills are evident in hyperspectral images.
• The mid-infrared region is expected to record unique information concerning elevated gas concentrations and silica content.
• Help manage environmental impacts.

Offshore oil and gas

• Test the sensing and discrimination of naturally-occuring oil seepages in and on the water.
• Discriminate economic from unimportant natural seepages, better define the location of seep source.
• Satellite-based seep detection for offshore basin evaluation is used on an operational basis around the world: quantify the improvements which hyperspectral data allow.

Efficacies of cooperative R&D

The Geosat Committee's goal is to move emerging technologies from research status to a commercial footing. Geosat's 20-year history has seen applications emerge that have spawned entire industries and won international awards for commerce.

Developing applications is a high-ticket item for industry. Expensive, experienced, multidisciplinary talent is required to identify needs and to envision the solutions to match. It takes time to prove the ideas and activate sales and marketing. Meanwhile, the activity draws resources away from a company's already profitable work.

Fortunately, affordable, quality applications are generated by consortia members with the know-how, processing power, and business need to become inventive and create new ways to solve time- and money-wasting problems.

For data vendors and customers alike, capabilities, applications, and markets are defined, and such preliminary work guarantees a commercial demand for data the instant the data supply is available for sale.

Participation summary

Companies participate at several levels, depending on their in-house processing and interpretation capabilities, if any. The maximum cost for rudimentary processing participation is $15,000. The maximum cost for further enhanced products is $30,000. Cost per participant will decrease as the number of participants increases.

At the high end, participating organizations receive:

• Appropriate hyperspectral images.
• Interpretation maps for specific targets of interest (minerals; seeps, spills, geologic features; vegetation; etc.), in hardcopy and digital format.
• Spectral signature determination for specific targets of interest.
• Written reports for each test site.
• Basic graphics for management presentation.

The Authors

Dave Koger is proprietor of Koger Remote Sensing, Fort Worth, and immediate past chairman of the Geosat Committee. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Rebecca L. Dodge is Geosat research and training director at the Pan American Center for Earth and Environmental Studies, University of Texas at El Paso. E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.