Oil spills in sea water represent one of the most conspicuous forms of damage to the marine environment. They can be detected in SAR images by the exploitation of the normalized cross section (NRCS) and the co-polarization ratio (PR) and by the use of a combined detector. In this paper we describe the simulation of sea surface SAR data by means of the statistical compound model and we use these data for testing the proposed NRCS and PR-based oil spill detection approach. It shows good performance compared to detectors based on the single PR or NRCS information.

This paper presents a spaceborne SAR mission concept in Ku-band for the measurement of the two-dimensional ocean surface current. The measurement concept is based on dual-beam along-track interferometry, which requires two highly squinted antennas each looking simultaneously in fore and aft direction. A single side-looking geometry and a ScanSAR imaging mode is chosen to complete the observational concept in order to achieve the requirements on revisit-time and coverage. The applied hybrid polarization is intended to increase the information level about different ocean scattering mechanisms. Furthermore a methodology of instrument requirement derivation is briefly discussed, ensuring the ocean current measurement accuracy requirements. Finally the instrument concept, including digital beamforming, and the SAR performance are presented.