Oil pollution detection experiments by the synthetic aperture radar on the European Remote Sensing Satellite-1

We conducted experiments on detecting artificial oil pollution areas using the C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar on the European Remote Sensing Satellite-1 in November 1991 and in October and November 1992. Artificial oil pollution areas were produced by spilling oleyl alcohol from a small ship in the Pacific ocean about 100 km off the coast of Japan. Sea truth data were collected by the research vessel and the small ship used to spill the alcohol. The ERS-I SAR images were processed by NASDA. The artificial oil pollution areas were clearly detected by ERS-1 SAR under various wind speeds of less than 11 m/s. The maximum damping of the scattered power was nearly the same (4 to 5 dB) for the wind speeds of less than 11 m/s. However, the ERS-I SAR did not detect the artificial oil pollution areas when the wind speed was 13.7 m/s.