Estimating Oil-Water Mixing Ratios of Marine Oil Spills From L-Band Fully Polarimetric SAR Images

Estimating the M (the proportion of oil in the oil-water mixture) is crucial for the emergency response to oil spill pollution. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been extensively utilized in monitoring oil spills. Previous studies predominantly focused on distinguishing oil spills from sea backgrounds. In contrast, the objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of a fully polarimetric SAR to quantitatively estimate the M of marine oil spills and develop a method to achieve this goal. This letter analyzes the correlation between different polarimetric features, such as polarization scattering entropy, mean scattering angle, and more, and their relationship with the M values using L-band fully polarimetric SAR images obtained during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill accident. The results indicate that the mean scattering angle is the most suitable polarimetric feature for inverting the oil-water mixing ratio. Based on these findings, a novel method for estimating the M of marine oil spills using fully polarimetric SAR images is proposed. This study represents the initial endeavor to explore the benefits of employing a fully polarimetric SAR for the purpose of inverting oil-water mixing ratios.