Chapter 8
Perspectives on Oil Spill Detection
Using Synthetic Aperture Radar
Michele Vespe, Monica Posada, Guido Ferraro, and Harm Greidanus
8.1 Introduction
Deliberate oil discharging is a well known source of marine pollution, calling for
automatic and reliable detection to allow timely intervention. On account of this
large coverage, all-weather and day and night capabilities, SAR technology has long
been recognised as one of the most suitable instruments for oil spill monitoring
especially over wide areas.
Following the European Directive 2005/35/EC, which entered into force in
September 2005, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is required to provide assistance to the European Union in tracing discharges by satellite monitoring
and surveillance. The CleanSeaNet service has been developed from research activities on oil spill detection, becoming an operational asset within the European Union
Coastal Member States, Norway, and probably soon also Iceland. This service is
currently implemented delivering Near Real Time (NRT) oil spill alerts and positions. As a consequence, oil spill detection from SAR images is required to deliver
reliable results that can be efficiently used by the Coastal States as decision support tools to efficiently coordinate the operations for combating and monitoring oil
pollution. 1
In this paper we present a set of advances in SAR satellite based oil spill detection that relate to the integration of additional information into the classification
process. The work reflects the JRC experience in the field (see Muellenhoff et al.,
2007; Ferraro et al., 2007; Vespe et al., 2009; Ferraro et al., 2009). The primary
End User’s need in this field is the assurance of truthfulness of the delivered information, which translates into the ability to associate a degree of confidence of the
detection to each oil spill candidate as presented in this work. This is crucial in
order to evaluate the status of alert to be considered by the competent authorities for
M. Vespe (B)
Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Joint Research Centre, European
Commission, Ispra 21027, Italy
e-mail: michele.vespe@jrc.ec.europa.eu
1 See CLEANSEANET website http://cleanseanet.emsa.europa.eu (accessed 01.12.2009).
131
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_8, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Perspectives on Oil Spill Detection
Using Synthetic Aperture Radar
Michele Vespe, Monica Posada, Guido Ferraro, and Harm Greidanus
8.1 Introduction
Deliberate oil discharging is a well known source of marine pollution, calling for
automatic and reliable detection to allow timely intervention. On account of this
large coverage, all-weather and day and night capabilities, SAR technology has long
been recognised as one of the most suitable instruments for oil spill monitoring
especially over wide areas.
Following the European Directive 2005/35/EC, which entered into force in
September 2005, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is required to provide assistance to the European Union in tracing discharges by satellite monitoring
and surveillance. The CleanSeaNet service has been developed from research activities on oil spill detection, becoming an operational asset within the European Union
Coastal Member States, Norway, and probably soon also Iceland. This service is
currently implemented delivering Near Real Time (NRT) oil spill alerts and positions. As a consequence, oil spill detection from SAR images is required to deliver
reliable results that can be efficiently used by the Coastal States as decision support tools to efficiently coordinate the operations for combating and monitoring oil
pollution. 1
In this paper we present a set of advances in SAR satellite based oil spill detection that relate to the integration of additional information into the classification
process. The work reflects the JRC experience in the field (see Muellenhoff et al.,
2007; Ferraro et al., 2007; Vespe et al., 2009; Ferraro et al., 2009). The primary
End User’s need in this field is the assurance of truthfulness of the delivered information, which translates into the ability to associate a degree of confidence of the
detection to each oil spill candidate as presented in this work. This is crucial in
order to evaluate the status of alert to be considered by the competent authorities for
M. Vespe (B)
Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Joint Research Centre, European
Commission, Ispra 21027, Italy
e-mail: michele.vespe@jrc.ec.europa.eu
1 See CLEANSEANET website http://cleanseanet.emsa.europa.eu (accessed 01.12.2009).
131
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_8, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010