A portion of our research involves developing methods for applying existing remote sensing assets to hazard response and mitigation. To date, most of our work in this realm has focused on applications of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data to marine oil spill and wildfire response. Radar is well-suited for these applications because it is an all-weather, all-lighting instrument that is capable of locating oil on the sea surface, within bays, and along wetland coast. And our work has shown that it is possible to glean some characteristics of the spilled oil from PolSAR data. We have also shown that PolSAR data can be used to locate the perimeters of wildfires, under certain conditions.
Some relevant papers (Names of group members are bolded)
S. Angelliaume, P. Dubois-Fernandez, C. E. Jones, B. Holt, B. M. Minchew, E. Amri, and V. Miegebielle. SAR imagery for detecting sea surface slicks: performance assessment of polarization-dependent parameters. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, PP(99):1-21, 2018. [ pdf | doi ]
S. Angelliaume, B. M. Minchew, S. Chatiang, P. Martineau, and V. Miegebielle. Multifrequency radar imagery and characterization of hazardous and noxious substances at sea. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 55(5), 2017. [ pdf | doi ]
M. J. Collins, M. Denbina, B. M. Minchew, C. E. Jones, and B. Holt. On the use of simulated airborne compact polarimetric SAR for characterizing oil-water mixing of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 8(3):1062-1077, 2015. [ pdf | doi ]
B. M. Minchew, C. E. Jones, and B. Holt. Polarimetric analysis of backscatter from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill using L-band synthetic aperture radar. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 50(10):3812 -3830, 2012. [ pdf | doi ]
B. M. Minchew. Determining the mixing of oil and seawater using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar. Geophysical Research Letters, 39:L16607, 2012. [ pdf | doi ]
C. E. Jones, B. M. Minchew, B. Holt, and S. Hensley. Studies of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill With the UAVSAR Radar, Monitoring and Modeling the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A Record-Breaking Enterprise, Geophysical Monograph Series, volume 195, edited by Y. Liu et al., pages 33-50. AGU, Washington, DC, 2011. [ pdf | doi ]