Oil spill dispersion in full-polarimetric and hybrid-polarity SAR

We show that indications of spatial dispersion effects on mineral oil slicks are observed by space-borne multipolarization synthetic aperture radar. This is readily perceived by eye when correlating multipolarization synthetic aperture radar observables with the ship track of the dispersion vessel. We investigate real full-polarimetric (linear transmit/linear receive) as well as simulated and real hybrid-polarity (circular transmit/linear receive) synthetic aperture radar features. Specifically, we give a thorough discussion of observables derived from the cross-correlation of two polarization channels, and compare their counterparts in the two above mentioned polarization bases.