GETECH, a UK-based petroleum and minerals consultancy, has begun an industry-funded research study to enhance the resolution of satellite-derived gravity data used in the search for hydrocarbon-bearing structures under the world’s oceans and seas.

The nine month R&D study will determine how, and to what degree, the advanced ocean measurements from the three cycle polar geodetic mission (2011-13) of the CryoSat-2 satellite (with data provided by the European Space Agency, ESA) can improve the accuracy, resolution and reliability of satellite derived gravity. Such gravity data are being used routinely by the oil industry for exploration of the world’s continental margins.

The success of the R&D study will pave the way for a global study by GETECH, commencing in early 2013, to map all the world’s continental margins out to 500 km from the shore lines. This global study will include data from the NASA Jason-1 oceanographic satellite, subject to it going into geodetic mission mode in 2013.

Tags: GETECH