On The Use Of Terrasar-X Dual-Pol Mode For Oil Slicks Observation

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze the potential of TerraSAR-X (TS-X) dual-pol StripMap (SM) mode data for oil slicks observation purposes. Single Look Complex SAR data acquired with HH-VV polarization combination give the opportunity to retrieve the so called Co-polarized Phase Difference (CPD), i.e. the phase difference between the HH and VV channels. The capability of the polarimetric parameter is analyzed regarding the ability to distinguish between oil slicks and oceanic features with weak damping properties (e.g. natural and biogenic slicks, ship wake and so on). TS-X HH-VV SM images acquired during two of the worst offshore platform accident (BP Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico 2010, and Montara platform, Timor Sea 2009) are considered as "ground truth" to validate the proposed methods. Oceanic and man-made features with weak damping properties, visible in SAR images as dark spot and that are easily mixed up as oil, have been analyzed with the same filter method. The latter results show a different behaviour, in contrast with the ones obtained in the oil cases, providing the opportunity to automatically discard them as possible oil slicks.