Marine Oil Slicks Quantification From L-band Dual-Polarization SAR Imagery

We show, using simple physical models, that a quantitative estimation of the volume fraction of marine oil slicks can be achieved from dual-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. Volume fraction, which quantifies the proportion of seawater in oil in the case of a mixture, depends primarily on volume scattering mechanisms and is inferred from the polarization ratio in the L-band. A quantification algorithm is derived, namely, the volume fraction estimation algorithm that is applied to two experimental data sets acquired in the Mediterranean Sea during the POLLUPROOF’2015 exercise and in the North Sea during the NOFO’2015 experiment using the Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales airborne L-band SETHI system. The resulting volume fraction maps of the quantification method are presented and discussed, opening new perspectives for marine oil slicks monitoring by means of dual-polarization SAR imagery.