Identification of gas flares in the North Sea using satellite data

Abstract

This paper describes the identification of oil production platforms responsible for flaring off gas in the North Sea, using data received from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) carried on the polar-orbiting weather satellites TIROS-N, NOAA-6 and NOAA-7. A selected area of each of several AVHRR scenes of the North Sea and surrounding coastline has been rectified and the geographical co-ordinates of the gas flares ascertained. These have been compared with a map of platform locations. In most cases the identification of the platform responsible for producing the flare is unambiguous.