Noroozi, Aliakbar
Tracking of smoke plumes generated by Kuwaiti’s oil wells fire, using model based image analysis
ALI AKBAR NOROOZI (1)
Nader Jalali (2) Bahram Aminipouri (3)
Soil Conservation & Watershed Management Research Center
P. O. Box 13445 — 1136, Tehran Iran
E-mail: à_noroozi@email.com
scwmrc(a)neda.net.ir
KEY WORDS: Smoke plume, Oil wells fire, Tracking, NOAA-AVHRR, Persian Gulf War
ABSTRACT:
A study was carried out to assess the relation between the observed environmental damages in Iran during and after
1991, and the environmental contamination caused by the Persian Gulf War in Kuwait. Special attention is given to the
use of Remote Sensing (RS) data and Geographic Information System (GIS) methods. Field observations in Iran and the
region were used for verification and identification purposes. In this study, 1267 NOAA-AVHRR images from four
satellites that were transmitting data during 1991 (NOAA-9, 10, 11 and 12) were used for tracking smoke plumes of
Kuwait's oil fires to the coast and territory of Iran.
The study concludes that the available data supports the assumption that smoke, soot and black and acid rains from
Kuwait reached the territory of Iran. Application of model based image analysis and GIS permitted a quantitative and
qualitative estimate of the smoke concentration over the Persian Gulf area.
During the peak period of the fires, the wells were emitting about 5,000 tons of greasy soot and smoke daily. It has been
reported that there were about 225 smoky days in total during 1991. If we take in average about 4,000 tons of smoke
daily (80% of 5,000 tons), then we have: given the accumulated output of the oil well fires of 4,000 tons/day * 225 days
— 900000 tones and not considering smoke drifting on the image boundaries. It is estimated that about 0.37 * 900000 =
333000 tones of oil and oil related pollutants were transported by air from the Kuwaiti oil well fires to the territories of
Iran, where 0.37 is the integrated smoke density over Iran relative to the integrated smoke density over the whole
image.
As a conclusion, this study demonstrated how remote sensing and GIS data could be used to track smoke plumes of
Kuwait’s oil fires of the 1991 Persian Gulf War to the coast and territory of Iran. The results are in part qualitative
(inspection of visual patterns) and in part provide quantitative information in conjunction with other data.
1. INTRODUCTION
Two specific events that occurred during the Persian Gulf War have made a severe impact upon the environment in the
region. Late January 1991 millions of barrels of crude oil were released into the Persian Gulf from tankers and oil
terminals located off the coast of occupied Kuwait. Less than a month later nearly 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, storage tanks,
refineries and facilities were blown up and set on fire. An estimated nine hundred million barrels of oil were burned or
spilled onto the land during the following 9 months generating trails of smoke and soot over several hundreds of miles.
This caused the intrusion of massive quantities of smoke (soot), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and unburned
hydrocarbons into the atmosphere (Jenkinks, 1991 a, b) [1]. The spread of soot and particulate matter took place within
a large area as stated in WMO Report
It is not easy to assess the full impact that these events have had and still may have on the local and regional
ecosystems. However, it may be expected that their effects will linger on for many years to come. The impacts in the
Persian Gulf from the war are certainly among the heaviest environmental pressures incurred in recent times (Price,
1993) [2].
2. Method
2.1 Image data selection and pre-processing
The data have been pre-processed for sensor radiometric calibration and georeferencing by National Centre for
Atmospheric Research of USA (NCAR). : ^
As the data vary by time of the day, sunangle, average amount of haze in the sky, an additional radiometric calibration
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 1019
