A cloud-integrated web platform for marine monitoring using GIS and remote sensing. Application to oil spill detection through SAR images

•An integrated tool named Sentinazos was developed to monitor marine spills.•The tool takes advantage of GIS and HPC.•Several segmentation algorithms for dark spots isolation in dark scenes are discussed.•The system runs in the Cloud, providing communication between users.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have gained popularity in recent years because they provide spatial data management and access through the Web. This article gives a detailed description of a tool that offers an integrated framework for the detection and localization of marine spills using remote sensing, GIS, and cloud computing. Advanced segmentation algorithms are presented in order to isolate dark areas in SAR images, including fuzzy clustering and wavelets. In addition, cloud computing is used for scaling up the algorithms and providing communication between users.