COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF REAL AND SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADARS FOR THE DETECTION OF OIL POLLUTION IN THE SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Coast Guard, in cooperation with the U.S. Army, Motorola Government Electronics Division, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and University of California, Santa Barbara Geography Remote Sensing Unit (GRSU), conducted a series of controlled tests off southern California during May 1976 to evaluate the oil detection and surface target sensing capabilities of two Motorola developed side-looking radars—a real aperture AN/APS-94D and a synthetic aperture coherent-on-receive (COR). Targets imaged during the coincident overflights included: natural oil seepage, NRL induced simulated oil spills, oil production platforms, piers, mooring buoys, commercial boats and barges, small pleasure craft, and coastal kelp beds. These overflights represented one of the few recorded instances where real and synthetic aperture radars were flown together and perhaps the first time two such systems had operated concurrently over water. Based on an analysis of imagery from the 10 coincident radar runs, COR provided better detection of natural and man-made oil slicks, while the APS-94D consistently exhibited higher surface target resolution results.