5.4. Visible Indications of Oil
Under many circumstances oil is not visible to the eye on the water surface [8]. Other than the obvious situations of night time and fog, there exists many situations where oil cannot be seen. A very common situation is that of thin oil such as from ship discharges or the presence of materials such as sea weed, ice, and debris that mask oil presence. Often there are conditions on the sea that may appear like oil, when there is indeed no oil. These include wind shadows from land forms, surface wind patterns on the sea, surface dampening by submerged objects or weed beds, natural oils or biogenic material, and oceanic fronts. In the case of large spills, the area may be too great to be mapped visually. Several cases ...
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