Oil spill detection using multi frequency microwave sensor onboard satellite; SSM/I and AMSR-E

At global level, detection and mapping of oil spill distributions is not feasible manually, as it is a time consuming process. Therefore, this task can be accomplished only by using satellite microwave remote sensing techniques. Due to the unique all weather penetration capability of microwaves it can penetrate through clouds and provide data during day as well as at night. The microwave remote sensing will provide the opportunity to measure the extent of oil spills over the sea surface and the thickness of oil over the sea surface. The paper describes briefly the specification of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) satellite and present a relationship between brightness temperature at different frequency with different oil spill and non-oil spill locations. The detection of oil spill has been done over a large frequency range from 6 GHz to 91 GHz and the behaviour of brightness temperature over oil spill location as well as non- oil spill location for each frequency is analyzed. The oil spill detection technique using the multifrequency brightness temperature has been revealed in this paper. The study is based on the 2010 Mumbai oil spill, which occurred after the two Panamian-flagged ships, MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-III collided off the west coast of India.