Oil Detection in a Coastal Marsh with Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

Remote Sensing

Elijah Ramsey³  Amina Rangoonwala²  Yukihiro Suzuoki¹ 

[1] ASci Corp., Inc., McLean, VA 22101, USA; E-Mail:;IAP World Services, Inc., Cape Canaveral, FL 32920, USA; E-Mail:;National Wetlands Research Center, US Geological Survey, 700 Cajundome Blvd., Lafayette, LA 70506, USA

关键词: Gulf of Mexico;    Deepwater Horizon oil spill;    PolSAR and multi-polarization radar data;    decomposition classification;    coastal marsh;    polarimetric signature analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs3122630

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s airborne Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) was deployed in June 2010 in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. UAVSAR is a fully polarimetric L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor for obtaining data at high spatial resolutions. Starting a month prior to the UAVSAR collections, visual observations confirmed oil impacts along shorelines within northeastern Barataria Bay waters in eastern coastal Louisiana. UAVSAR data along several flight lines over Barataria Bay were collected on 23 June 2010, including the repeat flight line for which data were collected in June 2009. Our analysis of calibrated single-look complex data for these flight lines shows that structural damage of shoreline marsh accompanied by oil occurrence manifested as anomalous features not evident in pre-spill data. Freeman-Durden (FD) and Cloude-Pottier (CP) decompositions of the polarimetric data and Wishart classifications seeded with the FD and CP classes also highlighted these nearshore features as a change in dominant scattering mechanism. All decompositions and classifications also identify a class of interior marshes that reproduce the spatially extensive changes in backscatter indicated by the pre- and post-spill comparison of multi-polarization radar backscatter data. FD and CP decompositions reveal that those changes indicate a transform of dominant scatter from primarily surface or volumetric to double or even bounce. Given supportive evidence that oil-polluted waters penetrated into the interior marshes, it is reasonable that these backscatter changes correspond with oil exposure; however, multiple factors prevent unambiguous determination of whether UAVSAR detected oil in interior marshes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.