Applied Science Associates Inc., an environmental software company headquartered in Narragansett, R.I., provided its Oilmap computer models and simulations to China's Oil Spill Emergency Response Center to monitor the spill and to predict how the oil would move through the water, said Xiongping Zhang, ASA's Asia project director.
Days after the analysts modeled the spill with Oilmap, a satellite image released by the European Space Agency showed the extent of the oil and confirmed the accuracy of the software prediction, which gave officials at China's Maritime Safety Administration confidence in their response plan, Zhang said.