Oil Spill Emergency Response
The presence of oil on water reduces the backscatter over the area of the spill due to the attenuation of the Bragg scale waves and a reduced signal return to the sensor. On the iamge, the oil spill has a darker tone than the surrounding water. Wind shadows near land, regions of low wind speed, natural surfactants, and grease ice can be mistaken for oil spills and ancillary or multi-temporal information is sometimes needed to discriminate the oil spill from other phenomena. Steep incidence angles are recommended for oil spill detection.