Potiguar Basin, production fields, SIG, albedo, climatic changes.
Potiguar Basin, production fields, SIG, albedo, climatic changes.
This paper discusses the onshore oil exploration that occurs in the Potiguar Basin, in the limits of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, under the focus of changes in the albedo index and surface temperature associated with them. The albedo is considered a significant variable in the understanding of the energy balance that is part of the analysis of global climate change. Through the use of remote sensing and GIS tools using the scenes produced by the Landsat-8 satellite OLI sensor, it was possible to determine albedo index variations in the eighty-six oil fields there. The influence of these forms of exploration in the reserve areas in the study area, the Sustainable Development Reserve of Ponta do Tubarão and the Assú National Forest were also analyzed. The survey indicates, with the determination of the amounts processed, that although this is the largest onshore exploration area in the country, the oil exploration areas have lower rates of change compared to other areas of energy exploration considered renewable due to geosystemic changes. The variations in surface temperature, an important climatic variable, stand out with higher rates of change, even if it is one of the regions with the highest temperature indexes in the country.