ABSTRACT

In this chapter, satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements are exploited to develop added-value products for the surveillance of critical infrastructures and the preservation of the marine environment. The products addressed belong to the oil field observation domain that includes sea oil slicks and man-made metallic targets deployed at sea as oil/gas rigs, ships, and drilling platforms. Once the sea oil field scenario is introduced, the most advanced polarimetric approaches to monitor sea oil fields are presented and discussed. Meaningful showcases on actual polarimetric SAR data collected over sea oil fields are shown and critically discussed to point out the benefits provided by polarimetric information in the context of sea oil field observation. The observation of sea oil slicks and the detection of metallic targets are addressed separately in two different showcases, while a last showcase is presented where the final added-value product is provided. The chapter ends with final remarks that aim at supporting the reader in the exploitation of polarimetric SAR measurements for sea oil field monitoring purposes.