Oil Spill Detection
The SeaDarQ software operates on the principle that oil on the water reduces sea surface roughness and attenuates wind-generated waves. This reduces the backscatter intensity from the radar signals which, in turn, appears as dark structures in radar images.
Conventional methods of measuring oil spills use airborne and satellite radar (SLAR and SAR). While satellite and airborne radar have an advantage using a high angle (between 70 and 20 degrees) and high contrast between the unpolluted sea surface and the oil spill, they remain a single pass, single sweeping imaging technology which records only a moment in time.
The SeaDarQ oil spill detection system, on the other hand, records a number of consecutive images and integrates these together to show a real time, continuous monitoring of oil spills. Typically, 64 revolutions of the antenna are needed to produce a stable image, which means that it takes about 90 seconds to produce the first image. After that the image is updated continuously.
The ability of the SeaDarQ system to measure oil spills when there is only a small surface roughness represents one of the significant and unique advantages SeaDarQ holds over competitive products. When water waves are present (wave length 15m, wave height 0.5m), the SeaDarQ oil spill detection system works optimally, and can clearly identify areas of reduced backscatter.
