Possibilities and limitations in using satellite SAR for oil spill monitoring in the Northeast Caspian Sea - Project MONRUK

In the frame of the MONRUK project, aiming to demonstrate the capabilities of SAR imagery in marine monitoring services in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, we validated the relative ease in identifying oil spill pollution incidences in the Northeast Caspian Sea. Flooded oil fields along its shores constitute a major chronic pollution problem and a challenge for the remote sensing based monitoring. Due to extreme bottom shallowness, oil spills related to these fields are not easily identified on SAR imagery. Among the look-alikes which obscure the image structure, the manifestations of exposed shoals in the brink of the flooded oil fields are the most important. A reference control of the exposed bottom morphology, with respect to the water level fluctuations, is investigated here for monitoring the area. Such an approach however should be systematically upgraded, since the area is under continues physiographic modification.

PAVLAKIS Petros;  FERRARO DI SILVI E CASTIGLIONE Guido; 

2010-05-03

International Center for Remote Sensing of Environment (ICRSE)

JRC57871

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC57871,