REFLECTIVE SPECTROSCOPY AND AGING EXPERIMENTS OF SOME HIGH VOLUME ORGANIC CHEMICALS, FOOD OILS AND MOTOR OILS: DATA TO SUPPORT HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING OF CHEMICAL SPILLS

Hyperspectral remote sensing (HRS) is an established technology, which can investigate fuel and petroleum spills. HRS is becoming more utilized for this purpose as spectral libraries continue to be built and refined. This technology can quantify the extent of petroleum spills and characterize how spills age or change over time. The ability to do this through remote sensing not only provides information but reduces risk for first responders and environmental personnel. Although research has been done on petroleum and related products such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel, acetone, E85 and some motor oils, there is comparatively little work done on other high-volume chemicals that may also either be toxic to the environment or may significantly disturb the environment. A preliminary investigation of the reflective spectra of glycerol, ethylene glycol, food oils, and motor oils was conducted on a variety of substrates using an ASD Fieldspec 4 spectroradiometer. Substrates included Ottawa sand, other sands, concrete, and gravels. Experiments were conducted such that liquid substrate combinations were allowed to age over a period of three weeks under shelter from direct precipitation but exposed to the ambient atmosphere during the month of April 2019. Spectral data was collected from 350 nm to 2500 nm using an open path geometry in a controlled lab setting using standard illumination procedures. Many liquid-substrate combinations had detectable liquids over the period of study and some systematic changes were observed that suggest detailed age–spectral relationships should be explored in more detail. Spectrally brighter substrates enable more straight forward detection of liquids and darker substrates obscure detection more readily. Experimental work demonstrates that organic liquids of a variety of types are detectable on a wide range of substrates and further work with other organic chemicals and different substrates is warranted.