Dual-Polarized TerraSAR-X Data for Oil-Spill Observation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 49; no. 12; pp. 4751 - 4762
• Main Authors: Velotto, D., Migliaccio, M., Nunziata, F., Lehner, S.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2011; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied geophysics; Coherence; copolarized phase difference (CPD); Correlation; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Estimation; Exact sciences and technology; Internal geophysics; Oil pollution; Sea measurements; sea oil slicks; Sea surface; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); Synthetic apeture radar; TerraSAR-X; models; efficiency; TerraSAR-X; copolarized phase difference (CPD); amplitude; sea oil slicks; channels; correlation; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); Coherence; oil spills; performances; Synthetic aperture radar; standard deviation
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2011.2162960

A study exploiting dual-polarimetric X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to observe oil at sea is undertaken for the first time. The polarimetric model exploits the interchannel correlation between the like polarized channels. Accordingly, two parameters related to the interchannel correlation, namely, the amplitude coherence and the copolarized phase difference (CPD) standard deviation, are accounted for, and their performances, with respect to sea oil slick observation, are carefully discussed. Single-look Slant range Complex dual-polarized TerraSAR-X SAR data, in which both certified oil slicks and weak-damping look-alikes are present, are used to verify the efficiency of the proposed approaches. Results show the advantage of the CPD approach and the effectiveness of TerraSAR-X dual-polarized products for such application.