LDS Freedom Forum

BP / Gulf Oil Spill - FSU Research Cruise This Week
Dr. Oscar Garcia-Pineda of Florida State University has been out in the Gulf this week on the research vessel Brooks McCall. He's collecting samples and observations of the BP oil slick, and will compare results with simultaneous acquisitions of aerial remote sensing overflights being conducted by NASA. We at SkyTruth are also collecting near-simultaneous satellite imagery to assist this effort. We hope to get a better understanding of how well aerial and satellite remote sensing are detecting oil at (or near) the surface.

Oscar sent us a stunning series of photographs taken on June 22 near "Ground Zero" in the Gulf, the site of the leaking Macondo well, showing the cluster of response vessels there, and the collection and burning of oil. You can see them all in SkyTruth's Deepwater Horizon Blowout gallery (look for the photos with "FSU Sampling Cruise" in the title). Here are a few:

Jason wrote:

Col. Flagg wrote:

Jason wrote:Col - fyi: the reason for our discrepancy is we were talking about two different storms. 93L is the potential threat to the Gulf of Mexico.....and Hurricane Darby is on the other side in the Pacific...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

Thanks for the clarification Jason! There are actually three systems now threatening the Gulf... hurricane Darby (just south of Cuba), 93L and another tropical wave that has formed off the east coast of Africa.

93L is the storm south of Cuba. Hurricane Darby is in the Pacific a couple hundred miles below the Gulf of California....
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

Col. Flagg wrote:

Jason wrote:93L is the storm south of Cuba. Hurricane Darby is in the Pacific a couple hundred miles below the Gulf of California....
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

The storm south of Cuba is Darby (a Cat 3 hurricane)... the one below Baja California is hurricane Celia, which has weakened to a Cat 4.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/