gh OIL PIPE: DIAGNOSTICS ON THE EARTH AND FROM OUTER SPACE

Specialists of the “Technosphere Diagnostics and Safety” Division of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences have accomplished a very interesting and extremely important work. By using the Landsat-7 satellite system data, i.e. the snapshots made with the help of microwave spectrometer in several spectral ranges, the authors came to the conclusion about the state of the mainline section of the “Mongi-Pogibi” oil-pipe line on the territory of Sakhalin island. The researchers compared the outer space diagnostics data with the information about real technical condition of the same oil-pipe line section – i.e., ground-based diagnostics outcomes. The result turned out to be rather interesting.

It should be noted that the opportunity to discern from a satellite “something under the ground” seems incredible for laymen (the majority of us). Indeed, the oil-pipe line is laid at the several meter depth, and on the outside it is usually impossible not only to see it but even to assume that a “black gold” river is hidden into a pipe under a layer of ground. However, professionals know that irradiation in the radio-frequency range enables in principle to reveal sections with “atypical” inclusions against the Earth general radiation background – for example, sections with metal tubes filled up with a substance the differs significantly from the soil by its physical properties. However, this is simple only in theory. In practice, it is not easy at all to automatically discover the pipe line “thread” based on the satellite data. However, this is possible – this was demonstrated by researchers of the “Technosphere Diagnostics and Safety” Division of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. They managed not only to discover the pipeline per se, but also to find defects in it and such parts of the soil that can provoke defect appearance (the so-called corrosion-active sections). Besides, with the help of obtained snapshot processing, the researchers managed to carry out the analysis of vegetation and relief in the pipe line area, and even to recognize and discover objects of the natural and artificial origin.

It is interesting to note that the oil pipe line was very well “seen” in all used spectral ranges – the pipe line “exposure” (as the specialists put it) was no less than 90% in each of the spectral ranges. That is, roughly speaking, more than 9 out of 10 meters of pipe line were reflected correctly on the outer space map. To make the picture even closer to reality, the researchers, simply speaking, have summarizes by computer the data on all spectral ranges – they have modeled the “summary” oil pipe line route.

As for the ground-based diagnostics, the specialists have gone along the entire route and learned all of its necessary parameters: they have determined actual position of the oil pipe line axis, coordinates of boots, gate valves, branch pipes, places of pipe line intersection with roads, communications, power transmission lines and with natural and artificial barriers. The researchers investigated to the same detail the pipe line state and natural peculiarities of the locality. And compared the results obtained from two kinds of diagnostics – outer space and ground based ones.

It has turned out that the calculation and object recognition methods suggested by the authors allow indeed to carry out pipe line diagnostics with high precision. Certainly, there were some deviations from reality of the data based on outer space snapshots, but these deviations were insignificant, and the authors are now finding out the reasons for such deviations and are working to make outer space diagnostics even more precise. However, it is clear for them even now that it is also necessary to use super-resolution outer space snapshots for implicitly discovered sections.

And finally, such diagnostics enables to discover the ground sections where corrosion may do significant harm to the pipe line – roughly speaking, it can rust through. The researchers also managed to find defects (already in place or making shape) in the pipes based on the data received from outer space.

Certainly, the limited volume of the article does not allow to describe in detail the enormous job performed by the researchers. However, its results have quite positively proved that the approach they suggested and applied opens up tremendous opportunities for outer space diagnostics of oil-pipe line condition. The snapshots from outer space can show if somebody made a small offset from the main route, if there are any defects in the pipes and where the defects may occur, as well as a lot of other useful information. Keeping in mind that oil-pipe lines constitute thousands of kilometers of pipes laid sometimes in impassable forests and swamps, it becomes clear how important it is to get trustworthy and precise information based on snapshots from outer space. Certainly, these two types of diagnostics are not mutually exclusive, outer space diagnostics cannot fully replace actual diagnostics performed by devices directly on-site. But it can provide necessary preliminary information, allocate resources efficiently and plan job. And therefore – it can save time and money.

***