SAR Images Aplication TU NW Mediterranean Marine Pollution and Surface Dynamic Features: A Case Study

The region of the Gulf of Lions at the northwestern Mediterranean Sea has been studied within a two-year period from December 1996 until November 1998. More than 250 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, which have been acquired by the Second European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS 1/2). In this paper, we present some results of the statistical analyses of several features revealed by SAR such as eddies and oil slicks dynamic features.Within the project "Clean Seas", which is funded by the European Commission, three test areas in European marginal waters, the southern Baltic Sea and North Sea and the northwestern Mediterranean were chosen for a comparative investigation of the remote sensing of marine pollution and other types of marine and atmospheric phenomena.Since natural (caused by plankton, fish, etc.) and man-made oil slicks dampen the small-scale surface waves, which are responsible for the radar backscattering from the water surface, they are visible as dark patches or lines in SAR imagery.Other types of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena also cause signatures due to changes in the surface capillary waves similar to those within oil slicks, these features are advected by the local currents so they are able to reveal the structure of the ocean surface flow.