OIL SPILL MONITORING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA USING ERS SAR DATA

In the present paper a set of image features are tested in order to select those useful to identify the oil spills. Two different statistical approaches have been developed in order to evaluate the probability that a dark area be a slick on SAR images. A comparison of the results of the two methods is provided. Based on the previous algorithms a SAR post processing imagery system has been developed. It can analyse both in automatic and manual modality the ERS SAR PRI and MRI images. At the end of the analysis a detection report is generated. The system functionalities, performance and the operational framework are described. The system validation activity has been carried out on two data sets, one of which also used to statistically characterise the slicks. The results obtained are very encouraging: they show that about 85% of the cases are correctly classified in both the situations. Moreover a comparison of the detection capability of the two methods is performed, using input images having different spatial and radiometric resolutions. The aim of such analysis is the time gap reduction between the image acquisition and the detection report availability.