AUV based mobile fluorometers: System for underwater oil-spill detection and quantification

The tragic Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as well as increase in deepwater offshore activity have increased public interest in counter-measures available for sub-surface releases of hydrocarbons. Available remote-sensing techniques are efficient and well developed for surface disasters but they are not useful underwater. Along these lines, this paper analyzes application of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) with integrated submersible fluorometer for underwater detection of hydrocarbons. Experiments with rhodamine, which was used as a replacement for oil, showed that the proposed system can be efficiently used both as an input into numerical model and consequent visualization of spatial distribution of pollutant.