Dual-polarized TerraSAR-X data for oil-spill observation

Kurzfassung

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is unanimously recognized as the most important remote sensing tool for sea oil spill monitoring. The TerraSAR-X satellite can provide high-quality, multi-mode X-band SAR-data from Ocean surface for scientific research and associated applications. For the purposes of this study Single Look Slant Range Complex (SSC) Dual Polarization StripMap (SM) TerraSAR-X products are employed. Physically based polarimetric approaches, aimed at exploiting fully the information carried on the scattered waves, have been shown to be useful for both observing oil spills and distinguishing them from biogenic look-alikes [1]-[2]. Following this, the phase difference between the complex HH and VV channels, which has been demonstrated to be suitable to observe sea oil spills in C-band SAR data [2], will be employed to distinguish in physical terms the X-band signal scattered off the slick-free and slick-covered sea surface as images as collected by the new TerraSAR-X satellite. Experiments, accomplished over a meaningful set of SSC dual-polarized TerraSAR-X data in which both oil and look-alikes are present, show that, for both observing sea oil slicks and distinguishing them from weak-damping look-alikes in X-band polarimetric SAR data, the standard deviation of the phase difference is the key information.