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Oil Fields from Space at Night

The geographic distribution of drilling sites can be mapped from space using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. These images were produced by NASA using data acquired in April and October 2012.

Article by: Hobart M. King, PhD, RPG



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About NASA's Suomi NPP Images NASA launched the Suomi NPP spacecraft in October 2011. It orbits the Earth about 14 times each day, observing the surface and collecting data using a variety of instruments. These instruments include the VIIRS (visible infrared imaging radiometer suite). The VIIRS observes visible and infrared wavelengths of light emanating from Earth. This data allows NASA to map the glow of natural events and human activity across the planet. [1, 2, 3] In April 2012 and October 2012 the satellite collected cloud-free night observations of visible and infrared light. NASA used this data to produce a map that displays night-time electric illumination and heat sources across the planet. The most obvious pattern on the map is the geographic distribution of cities revealed by their electric lights. [3] The map also shows the geographic extent of active oil fields revealed by their electric lights, and, the light and heat produced by natural gas flaring. The flared natural gas was originally dissolved in the crude oil and came out of solution at the time of production. Drilling companies burn it by flaring because the gas is inconvenient or unprofitable to use on the drilling site, or, because it is to costly to transport to market. This practice produces a large flare of burning gas that illuminates the surrounding area and vents heat and pollution into the atmosphere.



Sharing the Images with the Public In November, 2012, shortly after the Suomi NPP images were produced, NASA published a night-time view of North Dakota's Bakken oil field as part of an article on their Earth Observatory website. NASA published several versions of the image at different resolutions. Electric illumination and natural gas flaring caused the Bakken oil field to stand out as a cluster of small bright spots on these images. The low-population area of western North Dakota appeared like a cluster of lights on the satellite image. [4]

Objections to the Images In June, 2015, over two years after the images were published, researchers at the University of North Dakota released a study that reports that the images were "highly processed, manipulated and inaccurate". They said that the images made uninformed citizens think that natural gas flares were lighting up the land "as bright as a major metropolitan city". [5, 6] No data was provided on the number of citizens who actually believed this. It is unlikely that NASA contrived these images to make the public think that the landscape of northwestern North Dakota was "as bright as a city". Instead the dots of light on the images simply represented points of heat or light intense enough to be noteworthy. NASA prepared the the images in the same manner as a mapmaker prepares a road map. They placed a dot at each location with noteworthy illumination. There were lots of them. Mapmakers place symbols on maps to mark the locations of airports, schools, or cities. Each symbol marks the location of a noteworthy feature. The area on the map covered by each symbol usually does not represent the size of the airport, school, or city. The symbols simply mark their locations. Most people understand this.





