South Korea Oil Spill Visible from Space

This satellite image show the extent of the South Korea oil spill.

Photo: European Space Agency

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The 10,500 tons of oil that spilled off the cast of South Korea is visible in images captured by the European Space Agency.

The spill, the worst in South Korean history and the world's worst in nearly five years, has endangered wildlife and prompted thousands to attempt to clean the worst of the spill.

The crude oil spill, as seen on Dec. 11 at 10:40 a.m., covers a wide area.

Here is how NASA Earth Observatory described the nature of the image:

The presence of oil on the sea surface damps down smaller wind generated waves. It is these waves that reflect the radar signal back to the satellite. When they are damped, the reflected power measured by the radar is reduced, causing oil slicks to be seen as dark areas on an otherwise brighter sea. In this image, the dark oil covers the coastal waters of the Yellow Sea southwest of Seoul, Korea. ... Like other space-based radar instruments, ASAR essentially provides its own source of illumination and operates at longer wavelengths than optical sensors. This enables it to observe the Earth’s surface at night and through thick cloud cover.

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