Oil Spill on the Brazilian Coast in 2019: Remote Sensing and Observation Tools in the Crisis

From August 30, 2019, mineral oil slicks started to appear on the Brazilian coast, extending throughout the Northeast to the Southeast. The origin of the oil remains unknown, but efforts have been made to monitor new occurrences and to discover the possible cause. In October 2019, a Task Force was formed for this purpose, composed of scientists, researchers and professionals from different specialties from all over Brazil. This multidisciplinary team, coordinated by INPE, has been carrying out various studies, simulations, identifications and assessments with the objective not only of discovering the origin of that episode, but also of developing a proposal for constant monitoring with integration of optical, radar and “in situ” sensors, in addition to the identification of suspicious vessels.