Sea oil seep monitoring using a time series of Co-polarized coherent SAR measurements

In this study, coherent co-polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) information is exploited for sea oil seep monitoring purposes. A time series of 33 TerraSAR-X StripMap SAR data, collected over a well-known oil seep in Gulf of Mexico, is exploited to analyze the influence of incidence angle and wind conditions on the co-polarized phase difference (CPD). Furthermore, the benefits of using phase information for oil seep observation are assessed. Experimental results show that: i) incidence angle has a remarkable effect in broadening/shrinking the CPD statistical distribution and, ii) the CPD provides spatial information on the oil seep damping properties.