Oil Thickness Detection Using Wideband Radiometry

A major problem in the cleanup of oil spills on large bodies of water is determining the oil thickness distribution since much of the oil can be contained in a small fraction of the spill area. Knowledge of the location of the thick patches allows one to use cleanup resources more efficiently. To address this problem, we have designed, built and tested a millimeter-wave, frequency-scanning radiometer for remotely determining the thickness of oil films. The work is based on the theory of the frequency-scanning radiometer. Experimental result, obained in an outdoor laboratory setting, show agreement between our theory and measured data for oil thickness ranging from 0 to 10 mm in 1 mm steps. A visible change was obtained for 0.1 mm steps from 0.0 to 1.0 mm of oil. The study also demonstrated that thin oil/water emulsions are detectable.