Exploring the Potential of Optical Polarization Remote Sensing for Oil Spill Detection: A Case Study of Deepwater Horizon

Abstract

Oil spills lead to catastrophic problems. In most oil spill cases, the spatial and temporal intractability of the detriment cannot be neglected, and problems related to economic, social and environmental factors constantly appear for a long time. Remote sensing has been widely used as a powerful means to conduct oil spill detection. Optical polarization remote sensing, thriving in recent years, shows a novel potential for oil spill detection. This paper provides a demonstration of the use of open-source POLDER/PARASOL polarization time-series data to detect oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, one of the largest oil spill disasters, is utilized to explore the potential of optical polarization remote sensing for oil spill detection. A total of 24 feature combinations are organized to quantitatively study the positive effect of adding polarization information and the appropriate way to describe polarization characteristics. Random forest classifier models are trained with different combinations, and the results are assessed by 10-fold cross-validation. The improvement from adding polarization characteristics is remarkable ((average) accuracy: +0.51%; recall: +2.83%; precision: +3.49%; F1 score: +3.01%, (maximum) accuracy: +0.80%; recall: +5.09%; precision: +6.92%; F1 score: +4.72%), and coupling between the degree of polarization and the phase angle of polarization provides the best description of polarization information. This study confirms the potential of optical polarization remote sensing for oil spill detection, and some detailed problems related to model establishment and polarization feature characterization are discussed for the further application of polarization information.

Feasibility Study on the Emergency Acquisition of Satellite Images for Maritime Search and Rescue

“…To minimize damage from maritime accidents, a control system that can urgently grasp the current situation and respond to accidents is needed. To this end, remote sensing platforms such as drones, helicopters, manned aircraft and satellites have attracted considerable attention as surveillance means and applied in various scenarios such as maritime debris detection (Choi, 2021), ship detection (Xia et al, 2022), and oil spill monitoring (Zhang et al, 2022). Drones, helicopters and manned aircraft can perform precise detection with high spatial resolution, but the coverage area is narrow as they fly at low altitude.…”

Rapid Investigation of Oil Pollution in Water-Combined Induced Fluorescence and Random Sample Consensus Algorithm

“…In the face of these environmental risks and challenges, the development of a technique capable of swift and precise detection of oil pollutants in water bodies is imperative for the preservation of both marine and terrestrial ecosystems [7,8]. Such a method would not only enable prompt responses to oil-related incidents but also contribute significantly to proactive measures in environmental protection.…”

Hot‐Electron Driven Ultrafast Optical Polarization Conversion with Graphene‐Loaded Metasurface

“…The polarization state is one of the key attributes of light, which can be applied to split and combine the optical field and worked as the information carriers for developing the optical signal processing and encoding system, such as remote‐sensing, [ 1,2 ] polarimetric imaging [ 3–7 ] and communication encryption. [ 8–10 ] Therefore, the active control of the polarization state is crucial in meeting the requirements of integrated photonic circuits.…”