Method of detecting oil spills at sea using a shipborne navigational radar

摘要

A method is provided wherein standard shipborne navigational radar is used for the purpose of detecting oil-spills on the sea. A homogenous sea- return image is obtained by selectively reducing the sea- clutter, rain, and haze filters of the radar while selectively increasing the gain of the radar. Because oil-spills on the surface of the water minimize the backscatter of radar waves, the location of an oil-spill may be determined by identifying characteristic distortions in the form of zones of diminished sea-return in the homogenous sea-return image. A moving oil spill may be tracked with repeated observations.