--> ABSTRACT: Remote Sensing Detection of Hydrocarbon-Stressed Plant Communities at Patrick Draw, Wyoming, by Mark Settle and John B. McKeon; #91038 (2010)
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Remote Sensing Detection of Hydrocarbon-Stressed Plant Communities at Patrick Draw, Wyoming

Mark Settle, John B. McKeon

Airborne multispectral imagery has been used in the past to detect an area of blighted sage at the Patrick Draw oil and gas field in south-central Wyoming. This sage community is situated directly over the reservoir gas cap in the underlying Almond Formation. It is characterized by less-dense and less-vigorous sage vegetation. Soils exposed in the blighted area are characterized by high overall albedo and low relative reflectance in the 2.1-2.3 micrometer wavelength region. The purpose of this study is to determine if the sage anomaly at Patrick Draw can be reliably detected in orbital multispectral imagery acquired by the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT Previous HitsensorTop systems. The spectral resolution of TM imagery is comparable to that of the airborne scanner data; however the spatial resolution of the TM is roughly one-half that of the airborne scanner. The spatial resolution of SPOT imagery and the airborne data set are comparable; however, SPOT collects data in fewer spectral bands than the airborne scanner system originally used at Patrick Draw. This study will determine if the detection of the sage anomaly at Patrick Draw is critically constrained by the spatial resolution of the TM or the spectral resolution of SPOT.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91038©1987 AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10, 1987.