A look at oil spill detection and identification using SAR

Oil spill which enter the marine environment from numerous sources is a significant pollutant that severely degrades sea ecosystem with profound and catastrophic effect. In recognition of the need for timely oil spill containment and risk mitigation, an effective tool is required to provide rapid response in oil spill disaster management. This paper is authored with the aims to provide quick grasp into the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in oil spill detection and identification. The paper is structured into five section: Section 1 introduces the scenario and problems associated with oil spill; Section 2 provides overview of different technology used in detecting the oil slick; Section 3 explains why SAR is the important tool in oil spill monitoring; Section 4 sum up the commonly used algorithms; Section 5 discusses the current limitation and outlook of SAR sensor and Section 6 summarises the paper.