Evaluation of Synthetic Aperture Radar for Oil-Spill Response

This report provides a detailed evaluation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) as a potential technology improvement over the Coast Guard's existing side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) for oil-spill surveillance applications. The U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center (R&D Center), Environmental Safety Branch, sponsored a joint experiment including the U.S. Coast Guard, Sandia National Laboratories, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hazardous Materials Division. Radar imaging missions were flown on six days over the coastal waters off Santa Barbara, CA, where there are constant natural seeps of oil. Both the Coast Guard SLAR and the Sandia National Laboratories SAR were employed to acquire simultaneous images of oil slicks and other natural sea surface features that impact oil-spill interpretation. Surface truth and other environmental data were also recorded during the experiment. The experiment data were processed at Sandia National Laboratories and delivered to the R&D Center on a PC-based computer workstation for analysis by experiment participants. Prepared in cooperation with Sandia National Lab, Albuquerque, NM.