Abstract
Oil spills in the Arctic are becoming more likely as shipping traffic increases in response to climate-related sea ice loss. To improve oil spill detection capability, we used a controlled mesocosm to analyze the multipolarized C-band backscatter response of oil in newly formed sea ice (NI). Artificial sea ice was grown in two cylindrical tubs at the Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility, University of Manitoba. The sea ice physical characteristics, including surface roughness, thickness, temperature, and salinity, were measured before and after oil injection below the ice sheet. Time-series C-band radar backscatter measurements detected the differences in the sea ice evolution and oil migration to the sea ice surface in the oil-contaminated tub, which was compared to uncontaminated ice in a control tub. Immediately prior to the presence of oil on the ice surface, the copolarized backscatter is increased by 13-dB local maximum, while the cross-polarized backscatter is decreased by 9-dB. Ice physical properties suggest that the local backscatter maximum and minimum, which occurred immediately before oil migrated onto the surface, were related to a combination of brine and oil upward migration. The findings of this work provide a baseline data interpretation for oil detection in the Arctic Ocean using current and future C-band multipolarization radar satellites.
Highlights
I N RECENT decades, the Arctic marine environment has become economically attractive for shipping and hydrocarbon exploration due to climate-related sea ice loss [1]–[3].Manuscript received June 16, 2021; revised September 22, 2021; accepted October 15, 2021
1) Phase-One Experiment Observation: The phase-one experiment started at midnight on February 7, 2020, immediately after the heaters and pumps were switched off [see Fig. 3(a)]
This article has explained the results of two different scenarios of multipolarization C-band scatterometer experiments performed on oil-contaminated newly formed sea ice (NI)
Summary
Manuscript received June 16, 2021; revised September 22, 2021; accepted October 15, 2021. Date of publication October 27, 2021; date of current version February 14, 2022. Cathrin Veenaas is with the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada, and with the Department of Chemistry, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden. Amirbahador Mansoori and Colin Gilmore are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada. Mark Christopher Fuller is with the Cryosphere and Climate Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
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