Remote Sensing for Oil and Gas Development, Production and Monitoring

Dear Colleagues,

The detection and quantification of hydrocarbon in the ocean or atmosphere using remote sensing has rapidly improved in resolution and coverage. There have been extensive advances in Earth observation (EO) sensors, including space-borne high-resolution multispectral ones, polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The data from these platforms are widely analyzed to study economic oil and gas reserves as well as monitor and respond to oil pollution and fugitive methane emissions. This has led to an improved understanding of the fundamental processes that govern basin properties, the natural release of hydrocarbons, and how these may be affected by climate changes and other developments. Algorithm and AI techniques will be crucial for processing the very large datasets generated by the ever-expanding data volumes. An important facet of this research are approaches that validate or calibrate the instruments and methods used for remote sensing using ground-truth measurements of natural releases or anthropogenic discharges quantified at their sources.

This Special Issue will explore new trends in algorithm development, image processing, and applications of remote sensing in mapping and environmental monitoring related to oil and gas discovery, production, and transport, including the detection of fugitive methane. The topics include, but are not limited to:

• Maritime oil spill contamination detection, mapping, and responses;
• The combination of EO, UAV, and SAR data to monitor oil-/gas-related activities;
• The mapping of oil/gas exploration caused linear (e.g., seismic lines) and areal (e.g., well site) disturbances;
• Models and methods for quantifying methane releases from natural and anthropogenic sources.

Prof. Dr. Ian Rosman MacDonald
Dr. William P. Meurer
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• oil spill
• oil slicks
• earth observation
• synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• petroleum geochemistry
• oil and gas seepage