On the co‐polarized phase difference for oil spill observation

In this study dual‐polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements were used to enhance oil spill observation. The co‐polarized phase difference (CPD) was modelled and used to characterize the scattering return from oil spills and biogenic slicks. The model predicts, under low to moderate wind conditions, a larger CPD standard deviation (σ) for oil with respect to the sea, while for biogenic slicks a σ value similar to that for the sea is obtained. Experiments accomplished with multilook complex (MLC) C‐ and L‐band SAR data show that the model predictions are confirmed and that the C‐band is, as expected, to be preferred to the L‐band.