Oil Spill Detection and Mapping
The presence of oil on water reduces the back scatter 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.