• Analysis of Oil Spill and Sea Ice Measurements Using Full-Polarimetric and Hybrid-Polarity Synthetic Aperture Radar data 

      Espeseth, Martine (Doctoral thesis; Doktorgradsavhandling, 2019-12-05)
      Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data has been used for decades to detect oil slicks and monitoring sea ice. With increased oil and gas exploration in the Arctic follows higher risk for oil spills. Knowledge of the sea ice and oil spills is important for making clever and efficient decisions in a hectic and non-hectic operational situation. The potential and limitations of the hybrid-polarity (HP) SAR ...
    • Assessment of Polarimetric Variability by Distance Geometry for Enhanced Classification of Oil Slicks Using SAR 

      Marinoni, Andrea; Espeseth, Martine; Gamba, Paolo; Brekke, Camilla; Eltoft, Torbjørn (Peer reviewed; Chapter; Bokkapittel, 2019-11-14)
      In this paper, we introduce a new approach for investigation of polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images for oil slick analysis. Our method aims at enhancing discrimination of oil types by exploring the polarimetric features that can be produced by processing PolSAR scenes without dimensionality reduction. Taking advantage of a mixture description of the interactions among classes within ...
    • Assessment of RISAT-1 and Radarsat-2 for Sea Ice Observation from Hybrid-Polarity Perspective 

      Espeseth, Martine; Brekke, Camilla; Johansson, Malin (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2017-10-25)
      Utilizing several Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions will provide a data set with higher temporal resolution. It is of great importance to understand the difference between various available sensors and polarization modes and to consider how to homogenize the data sets for a following combined analysis. In this study, a uniform and consistent analysis across different SAR missions is carried ...
    • Can Mineral Oil Slicks Be Distinguished From Newly Formed Sea Ice Using Synthetic Aperture Radar? 

      Johansson, Malin; Espeseth, Martine; Brekke, Camilla; Holt, Benjamin (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-08-18)
      In this feasibility study discriminating oil slicks and newly formed sea ice using SAR imagery is investigated, using imagery from the L-band high-resolution Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) airborne and the satellite C-band RADARSAT-2 (RS-2) systems. To determine the separability of these two varying but similar appearing low backscatter ocean surfaces, multi-polarization ...
    • Comparison of Machine Learning Methods for Predicting Quad-Polarimetric Parameters from Dual-Polarimetric SAR Data 

      Blix, Katalin; Espeseth, Martine; Eltoft, Torbjørn (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-02-17)
      This paper addresses the problem of up-scaling full polarimetric (quad-pol) parameters from small quad-pol synthetic aperture radar (SAR) scenes to large dual-pol scenes, using a sophisticated Machine Learning (ML) method, namely the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The approach is to let the GPR model learn the relationships between the dual-pol input data and the quad-pol parameters on a quad-pol ...
    • Cross-Correlation Between Polarization Channels in SAR Imagery Over Oceanographic Features 

      Brekke, Camilla; Jones, Cathleen; Skrunes, Stine; Holt, Benjamin; Espeseth, Martine; Eltoft, Torbjørn (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2016-05-11)
      This letter discusses cross-correlation features de- rived from near-coincident RADARSAT-2 quad-polarimetric and RISAT-1 hybrid-polarity (HP) measurements collected during the NOrwegian Radar oil Spill Experiment in 2015 (NORSE2015). We show that the imaginary part of the cross-correlation between RH and RV is an HP parallel to the real part of the cross-correlation between HH and VV earlier ...
    • Effect of Wind Direction and Incidence Angle on Polarimetric SAR Observations of Slicked and Unslicked Sea Surfaces 

      Skrunes, Stine; Brekke, Camilla; Jones, Cathleen Elaine; Espeseth, Martine; Holt, Benjamin (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-05-12)
      The objective of this paper is to investigate the dependency of oil spill observations in polarimetric SAR data on imaging geometry, i.e., on incidence angle and look direction relative to the wind. The study is based on quad-polarization data acquired by the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar over experimental oil slicks under relatively high winds of 10–12 m/s over an 8-hour period. ...
    • The Impact of Additive Noise on Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 Data Covering Oil Slicks 

      Espeseth, Martine; Skrunes, Stine; Brekke, Camilla; Johansson, Malin (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2019-11-14)
      We attempt to understand how a set of well known polari-metric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) features are impacted by the additive system noise for mineral oil and produced water slicks. For this, we use quad-polarimetric SAR scenes from Radarsat-2. Oil slicks at sea can be detected using SAR instruments, and the dual- (HH-VV) and quad-polarimetric modes can provide additional information about the ...
    • The impact of system noise in polarimetric SAR imagery on oil spill observations 

      Espeseth, Martine; Brekke, Camilla; Jones, Cathleen Elaine; Holt, Benjamin; Freeman, Anthony (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-01-16)
      The effects of both system additive and multiplicative noise on the X-, C-, and L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data covering oil slicks are examined. Prior studies have attempted to characterize such oil slicks, primarily through analysis of polarimetric SAR data. In this article, we factor in system noise that is added to the backscattered signal, introducing artifacts that can easily be ...
    • Integrated analysis of multi-sensor datasets and oil drift simulations - a free floating oil experiment in the open ocean 

      Brekke, Camilla; Espeseth, Martine; Dagestad, Knut-Frode; Röhrs, Johannes; Hole, Lars Robert; Reigber, Andreas (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-01-20)
      A free‐floating oil spill experiment (two oil types) in the open ocean is described, and the results from slick characterization through integrated analysis of drift simulations with remote sensing and in situ data are discussed. We compare oil drift simulations (OpenOil), applying various configurations of wind, wave, and current information, with the observed slick positions and shape. We describe ...
    • Large-Scale Detection and Categorization of Oil Spills from SAR Images with Deep Learning 

      Bianchi, Filippo Maria; Espeseth, Martine; Borch, Njål Trygve (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-07-14)
      We propose a deep-learning framework to detect and categorize oil spills in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images at a large scale. Through a carefully designed neural network model for image segmentation trained on an extensive dataset, we obtain state-of-the-art performance in oil spill detection, achieving results that are comparable to results produced by human operators. We also introduce a ...
    • Machine Learning for Arctic Sea Ice Physical Properties Estimation Using Dual-Polarimetric SAR Data 

      Blix, Katalin; Espeseth, Martine; Eltoft, Torbjørn (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-09-22)
      This work introduces a novel method that combines machine learning (ML) techniques with dual-polarimetric (dual-pol) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations for estimating quad-polarimetric (quad-pol) parameters, which are presumed to contain geophysical sea ice information. In the training phase, the output parameters are generated from quad-pol observations obtained by Radarsat-2 (RS2), and ...
    • Machine Learning simulations of quad-polarimetric features from dual-polarimetric measurements over sea ice 

      Blix, Katalin; Espeseth, Martine; Eltoft, Torbjørn (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-06)
      In this paper, we investigated the capabilities of the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) algorithm in predicting of two quad-polarimetric parameters (relevant for sea ice analysis) from 6-dimensional dual-polarimetric input vectors. The GRP is trained on few hundred samples selected randomly from an image subset, and tested on the entire image. The performance is assessed by visual comparisons, and ...
    • Measurement of Oil Slick Transport and Evolution in the Gulf of Mexico using L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar 

      Jones, Cathleen; Espeseth, Martine; Holt, Benjamin; Brekke, Camilla (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel, 2018-06)
      The transport and evolution of a mineral oil slick originating at a seep in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 16 km offshore of the mouth of the Mississippi River is measured using a series of images acquired at 40 minute intervals with the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), an L-band, high resolution, high signal-to-noise instrument operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics ...
    • Oil spill characterization in the hybrid-polarity SAR domain using log-cumulants 

      Espeseth, Martine; Skrunes, Stine; Brekke, Camilla; Salberg, Arnt Børre; Jones, Cathleen; Holt, Benjamin (Peer reviewed; Journal article; Tidsskriftsartikkel, 2016-10-18)
      Log-cumulants have proven to be an interesting tool for evaluating the statistical properties of potential oil spills in polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data within the common horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarization basis. The use of first, second, and third order sample log-cumulants has shown potential for evaluating the texture and the statistical distributions, as well as ...
    • Oil Spill Dispersion in Full-polarimetric and Hybrid-polarity SAR 

      Brekke, Camilla; Skrunes, Stine; Espeseth, Martine (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2017-12-04)
      We show that indications of spatial dispersion effects on mineral oil slicks are observed by space-borne multipolarization synthetic aperture radar. This is readily perceived by eye when correlating multipolarization synthetic aperture radar observables with the ship track of the dispersion vessel. We investigate real full-polarimetric (linear transmit/linear receive) as well as simulated and real ...
    • Oil-Spill-Response-Oriented Information Products Derived From a Rapid-Repeat Time Series of SAR Images 

      Espeseth, Martine; Jones, Cathleen; Benjamin, Holt; Brekke, Camilla; Skrunes, Stine (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-06-19)
      New quantitative and semiautomated methods for analyzing oil slick evolution using a time series of L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images with short repeat time are developed and explored. In this study, two methods that are complementary in terms of identifying temporal changes within an oil slick are presented. The two methods reflect two ways of evaluating the oil slicks. The first method ...
    • Separation and characterisation of mineral oil slicks and newly formed sea ice in L-band synthetic aperture radar 

      Johansson, Malin; Espeseth, Martine; Brekke, Camilla; Skrunes, Stine (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2019-11-14)
      Maritime activities in the Arctic Ocean is increasing and consequently the risk for an oil spill there is rising. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is used operationally to detect and monitor oil slicks and for sea ice monitoring and observations. Leads are often used for ship routing and within the leads newly formed sea ice is often present. Separation between the low backscatter areas that constitutes ...