NASA has published images of fires at oil production and storage facilities near Sidra, on the coast between Sirte and Benghazi following battles earlier this week.
Smoke plumes from several oil tanks and facilities spread a pall of black smoke across the nation’s Mediterranean coast.
The images were acquired on January 5, 2016.
According to news reports, five oil storage tanks were burning: four near Sidra and one near Ra’s Lanuf. Each tank is believed to contain 420,000 to 460,000 barrels of oil. The particulate matter and other chemicals in the smoke can cause respiratory and other health problems.
During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, astronauts on the space shuttle played an important role in documenting an environmental tragedy when oil wells across Kuwait were set on fire by Iraqi troops.
Satellite-based and airborne instruments were also critical to documenting the spread of oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
