OIL SPILL DETECTION BY MEANS OF DUALPOLARIZED SAR DATA

摘要

In this study the dual-polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) measurements are employed to enhance oil spill observation. The co-polarized phase difference (CPD) is considered to characterize the scattering return from oil spills and biogenic oil look-alikes. Theoretical considerations predict, under low to moderate wind conditions, a larger CPD standard deviation (σ) for oil, with respect to the sea, while for biogenic oil look-alikes a σ similar to the sea. Experiments accomplished over multi-look complex (MLC) C- and L-band SAR data, show that the C-band is, as expected, to be preferred to the L-band and the model predictions are confirmed. The CPD approach can be applied on dual-polarized SAR sensors such as the SARs on board of the ENVISAT and the COSMO SkyMed missions.