Comparison with L-, C-, and X-band real SAR images and simulation SAR images of spilled oil on sea surface

In recent years, the oil spill detection over sea surface and similar oil material filtration are attracting much attention from the ecological point of view, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is considered as an effective way of monitoring such phenomenon due to the day-and-night and all weather observation capability. In this paper, results of the oil slick detection experiment by multi-frequency space borne SARs are reported. On December 7, 2007, an oil tanker was wrecked in the Yellow Sea off the Korean west coast, spilling over 12, 000 tons of crude oil, and causing considerable damage on the coastal environment. In order to analyze the impact of the oil spill, we acquired 4 sets of multi-frequency spaceborne SAR images, including TerraSAR-X X-band data, ENVISAT ASAR and RADARSAT-1 C-band data, and ALOS-PALSAR L-band data. We also computed, as a preliminary study, the backscatter radar cross section (RCS) based on the physical optics model at three microwave frequencies for different wave damping ratios by oil slick. In this paper, we describe the present status of the study on oil slick detection, and suggest the possible future direction to be taken.