Hyperspectral Remote Sensing for Geologic Carbon Sequestration Field Monitoring

In order to constrain the growth of atmospheric CO2, Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) has been proposed as one “clean coal” technology for mitigating the more extreme impacts of global warming. An important issue to ensure the successful storage of carbon dioxide in geologic sequestration sites is the ability to monitor these sites for possible leakage. More understanding of CO2 storage processes and a confirmation of its effectiveness, so as to minimize environmental, safety, and health impacts in the event of a leak to the atmosphere, is certainly required. Hyperspectral technique is one of indirect remote sensing methods which could primarily measure plant stress to assure the public that the sequestration operation is safe in both short and long term period. Practically, analyzing hyperspectral plant signatures upon CO2 sequestration sites can prove that CO2 is being stored effectively underground. If there were a leak to occur, the excess amount of CO2 would create higher CO2 concentration in the top layers of soil near the surface then would stress the vegetation over the sequestration sites, which can be seen as changes in their spectral signatures. This paper aims to review the capability of using hyperspectral remote sensing technique in order to verify the safety of CO2 sequestration sites.