Multifrequency radar imagery and characterization of hazardous and noxious substances at sea

Maritime pollution by chemical products occurs at much lower frequency than spills of oil, however the consequences of a chemical spill can be more wide-reaching than those of oil. While detection and characterization of hydrocarbons have been the subject of numerous studies, detection of other chemical products at sea using remote sensing has been little studied and is still an open subject of research. To address this knowledge gap, an experiment was conducted in May 2015 over the Mediterranean Sea during which controlled releases of hazardous and noxious substances were imaged by an airborne SAR sensor at X- and L-band simultaneously. In this paper we discuss the experimental procedure and report the main results from the airborne radar imaging campaign.