TerraSAR-X Applications Guide Extract: Maritime Monitoring: Oil Spill Detection April 2015 Airbus Defence and Space Geo-Intelligence Programme Line
Maritime Monitoring: Oil Spill Detection Issue As the increasing shipping and off shore oil and gas activities lead to a growing likelihood of accidents at sea and oil pollutions or leakages, oil spill information is more and more requested in order to restrict the environmental impact. An integration of ship information is also very often requested for polluter identification. Moreover, there is a trend towards joint surveillance services for common areas of interest but serving different applications due to efficiency and cost sharing reasons. The joined surveillance system for European waters of EMSA, Frontex and Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA), which will help to detect oil pollutions, identify and prosecute polluters, detect illegal activities (immigration, human trafficking or smuggling) at the EU external borders is a good example. Markets Oil and Gas, Governmental Institutions
Achievements By using TerraSAR-X, oil spill indicator information can be achieved very easily, as oil spill areas do very often appear as dark areas on the sea surface (Figure 1). The information is typically derived by human image analysts. Benefits of using TerraSAR-X TerraSAR-X delivers input data for oil spill detection, which is cloud and day-light independent as TerraSAR- X is an active SAR sensor. This is especially important for new upcoming oil and gas exploration and production areas in either Central Africa, along the coastline of Brazil but also in arctic regions. TerraSAR-X offers the Wide ScanSAR mode with a large coverage (up to 270 x 200 km 2 ) and a spatial resolution of 40 m. This results in a commercially unique ratio between coverage and resolution, offering a unique potential to monitor larger areas also for smaller oil spills. Figure 1: Deep Water Horizon oil spill (Gulf of Mexico) visible as dark feature on sea surface in TerraSAR-X ScanSAR imagery. TerraSAR-X data can be delivered in Near-Real Time (NRT) to the client. After delivery, data can serve very quickly as an input to automatic pre-processing regarding oil spills using suitable software. All oil spill detection results can be achieved with high geolocation accuracy. Furthermore, the high acquisition frequency provides a good temporal sampling for ship detection. With the availability of TerraSAR-X / PAZ constellation a daily revisit will be available for most latitudes.
Relevant Data Specifications Table 1: Recommended Image Specification Image Modes: Number of datasets: Wide ScanSAR, ScanSAR, StripMap One Assumed Analysis Approach: Visual Oil spill Detection Polarization: VV System Settings: Incidence [Degree]: Angle 30 40 Orbit Ascending or Descending Basic Image MGD or GEC a Product TerraSAR- Image Product Resolution Mode: File Format: Radiometrically Enhanced (RE) GEOTIFF Note: Recommended image specification is an indication only. It may vary depending on the software used. Airbus Defence and Space, Geo-Intelligence does not guarantee relevant capability. Relevant Products and Services available from Airbus Defence and Space, Geo- Intelligence Oil Spill Monitoring Service Related Publications None Related Sample Datasets 1 x StripMap Bay of Plenty, New Zealand (MGD, RE, VV) 1 x StripMap Gulf of Mexico, USA (MGD, RE, VV) 1 x Wide ScanSAR Gulf of Mexico, Mexico (MGD, RE, VV) a depending on software
Suitable Software Application BAE Systems Exelis GAMMA Remote Sensing AG Company Name Hexagon Geospatial/ GEOSYSTEMS GmbH Joanneum Research PCI Geomatics Provided Software Racurs Textron Geospatial Solutions Trimble SOCET GXP ENVI SARscape GAMMA MSP,ISP,DIFF &GEO,LAT, IPTA ERDAS IMAGINE RSG - Remote Sensing Software Package Graz Geomatica and GXL Photomod Radar RemoteView, ELT5500, and Global ImageViewer ecognition Maritime Applications (Semi- or Full Automatic Analysis) Oil Spill Detection X X X X X Note: Information provided by Software Providers, Airbus Defence and Space, Geo-Intelligence does not guarantee relevant capability.
Contact For feedback or further inquiry please contact the Airbus Defence and Space Customer Service Centre via telephone at +49 7545 8 4344 / email: terrasar@astrium-geo.com or visit http://www.geo-airbusds.com/terrasar-x/
List of Abbreviations ACD CCD DEM DInSAR DSM DTM EEC EGR EMSA EOR EU EEZ GCP GEC GEO HS IMINT InSAR IWS MGD NRT PSI RE REED+ SAR SBAS SC SE SL SM SSC Amplitude Change Detection Coherence Change Detection Digital Elevation Model Differential Interferometry Digital Surface Model Digital Terrain Model Enhanced Ellipsoid Corrected (Basic Image Product) Enhanced Gas Recovery European Maritime Safety Agency Enhanced Oil Recovery European Union Exclusive Economic Zone Ground Control Points Geocoded Ellipsoid Corrected (Basic Image Product) Airbus Defence & Space, Geo-Intelligence High Resolution SpotLight (imaging mode) Image Intelligence Interferometric SAR Interferometric Wide Swath (Sentinel-1 imaging mode) Multi Look Ground Range Detected (Basic Image Product) Near-Real-Time Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) Radiometrically Enhanced Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries Synthetic Aperture Radar Small Baseline Subset Interferometry ScanSAR (imaging mode, 4-beam ScanSAR) Spatially Enhanced SpotLight (imaging mode) StripMap (imaging mode) Single Look Slant Range Complex (Basic Image Product)
SRTM ST WS Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Staring SpotLight (imaging mode) Wide ScanSAR (imaging mode, 6-beam Scan SAR)