Detection of oil spill and natural film in the marine environment by spaceborne SAR

The aim of this study has been to improve the understanding of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of surface slicks (area where the short surface waves /spl sim/few cm are dampened), and subsequently to develop a method for classification of such slicks, including oil spill and natural chemical-biological film. Oil spills and its lookalikes have been studied and classified according to SAR image expression, backscatter, geographical occurrence and weather limitations. The initial study of SAR slicks showed, as expected, that even though some trends in slick properties were discovered for, for example, oil spills and natural films, no one-to-one relationships were found. The supervised slick discrimination algorithm was therefore developed to standardize the procedures and make sure the same criteria are applied to all slicks in SAR images. Together with a data base containing information on typical properties of verified slick cases and a "hot-spot" data base (possible pollution sources), this will improve the ability to classify slicks.