Analysis of Color Characteristics of Marine Oil Spills Using PlanetScope Images

In this letter, we used PlanetScope imagery to conduct experiments on the color characteristics for oil type classification of marine oil spills through Red-Green-Blue (RGB) histogram analysis. The histograms of marine oil spills can be divided into three categories (dark black tones, light silver tones, and light rainbow tones) according to the distribution of pixel values in each band. Thick oil layers with dark black tones can be classified as heavy oil, while thin oil layers with light silver and rainbow tones can be classified as light oil. As more images are analyzed in the future, these oil spill detection and classification methods will become more generalized and reliable.