Comparison between radarsat-1 SAR different data modes for oil spill detection by a fractal box counting algorithm

Abstract

This work presents a modified formula for the fractal box counting dimension. The method is based on the utilisation of the probability distribution formula in the fractal box count. The purpose of this method is to use it for the discrimination of oil spill areas from the surrounding features, e. g. sea surface and look-alikes, using RADARSAT-1 SAR Wide beam mode (W1), Standard beam mode (S2) and Standard beam mode (S1) data acquisition under different wind speeds. The results show that the new formula is able to discriminate between oil spills and look-alike areas. The results also illustrate that the new fractal formula identifies well the deficiency of oil spills in pairs of S2 data. Further, there are no significant differences between fractal values of look-alikes, low wind zone, and current shear features in different beam modes for acquisition of RADARSAT-1 SAR data. The W1 mode data, however, show an error standard deviation of 0.002, thus performing a better discrimination of oil spills than the S1 and S2 mode data.