Ocean optics in application to remote detection of an oil-in-water emulsion originating from the engine room

Relatively great number of detected and confirmed oil spillages in the Polish marine areas reveals that discharge of oil substances from any one of a large number of ships to the marine environment is real in any time. Surface oil contamination can be easily detected by satellite or airborne radar techniąues, but unfortunately oil dispersed in the bulk of water cannot be detected at the present. Discharge waters usually contain small amounts ofoil substances in the form of dispersed droplets (emulsion). It is revealed that oil emulsion cause measurable changes in the optical properties of seawater. In practice, detection of changes of these properties should be possible by the standard radiance or irradiance reflectance meter. This paper presents a computed photon trace simulation applied to the marine environment polluted by oil-in-water emulsion. Model of marine area consists ofwhether conditions, sun elevation, sea depth, optical properties of seawater related to various transparency/turbidity: from clean oceanic waters to turbid coastal seawater (as water from Gulf of Gdańsk is). Model of oil pollution is represented by oil droplets size distribution and by spectra of both attenuation-coefficient and refraction-coefficient related to two optically absolutely different kinds of oil. It is revealed that the values of irradiance reflectance are significantly differ for the clean sea area in relation to the polluted one, even for small amounts of engine-room origin oil pollution.