How NASA finds oil.
Entered By: grantb on July 22, 2010
No Observations
Unfortunately, as NPR reveals, we’re not talking about the kind that’s still safely underground:
The NASA Earth Observatory explains that since ocean waters are never perfectly smooth, the sun’s reflection gets scattered off the surface in many directions. This yields a broad stripe of sunlight across the ocean in most satellite photographs.
But things change when you add oil to the water.
Diagrams and space photos (oo! a two-fer!) at the link.
Tags: engineering, oceanography
