A CSL Team, air quality BP Deepwater Horizon spill

This team from ESRL Chemical Sciences Laboratory supported the NOAA P-3 science flights in June of 2010 over the Gulf of Mexico to assess the potential air quality risks posed by the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill crisis to workers/citizens in the Gulf and surrounding areas. The nominees made measurements of the highest scientific quality under stressful and high-stakes conditions, and conducted the mission with admirable care, professionalism and unselfishness. At the time of the incident, the nominees were engaged in an extensive field campaign in California. They stepped forward to take a hiatus from the California mission and flew across the country to carry out two science flights before successfully completing their original California mission. The nominees used a suite of complementary instruments on the aircraft to provide the much-needed preliminary analyses that showed health risks to workers in the oil spill area were not as great as originally feared. They demonstrated an innovative new approach for assessing future oil spills, and provided an accurate and independent estimate of the fluid leak rate from the ruptured oil well over a mile below the surface. This significant effort involved coordinating with the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Health and Safety Administration to share data, compare analyses, and utilize the other agencies' complementary measurements to obtain a broader cross-section of the pollution effects arising from the oil spill. In addition, the team worked closely with petroleum engineers from BP and the federal government, and oceanographers from NOAA and academia to improve our collective understanding of the transport and removal of leaking fluid (oil and gas) in the water column and the atmosphere.04