Integration of RADARSAT-2 Dual and Quad Polarization Data into Pipeline Third Party Encroachment Monitoring

Mechanical damage incurred from unauthorized third-party activities remains a leading cause of oil and gas pipeline failure, indicating the need for effective strategies to monitor encroachment over extensive sections of pipeline right-of-ways (ROWs). The purposes of the work discussed in this paper are to evaluate the use of polarimetric spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for detecting vehicle targets and discriminating them from false alarms and to lay the foundation for integrating RADARSAT-2 products into the existing encroachment management system (EMS). RADARSAT-2 simulated products were created from Convair-580 imagery collected over Calgary, Canada. Results show that target detection is better for higher resolution data, but discrimination of targets from false alarms is better for dual and quad polarization data due to the increased feature set available that captures more of the scattering behavior. Overall, the Ultra Fine HH and dualpolarization Fine HH/HV or quad-polarization Fine are the recommended modes for an EMS using RADARSAT-2.