Fluid storage monitoring

• Main Authors: Michael Wollersheim, Simon Andersson, Tapio Friberg
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.09.2024
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUIDLEVEL; METERING BY VOLUME; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING

A volume of a fluid stored in a container 310 having a lid 316 resting on the surface of the fluid is monitored by receiving sets of image data (202, Fig. 2) from a satellite 300, each set corresponding to synthetic aperture radar image of an area that includes the container. The sets of image data are grouped according to the direction of travel and/or the look direction of the respective satellite that collected the set of image data. Sets of image data within a group are aligned geometrically (206, Fig. 2) to define a stack of aligned image data (208, Fig. 2), and a feature corresponding to a point on the bottom edge 314 of the storage container is identified. Another set of image data is geometrically aligned with the stack of aligned image data, and a feature corresponding to a point on the lid is identified (210, Fig. 2). The height hL of the lid relative to the bottom edge of the storage container is then determined from the identified features (212, Fig. 2). A method of determining if the height of the lid has changed using interferometric analysis is also claimed.