The company ISPAS AS, headquartered in Norway, recently announced that it has developed a Ku-band polarimetric Oil Spill Detection (OSD) radar that can detect oil spills at sea and the open water under most conditions including dead calm.
The radar is specifically developed for this purpose and uses a higher frequency than typical navigational X-band radars. The radar has electrically steered antennas with both electromagnetic polarizations and can map an oil spill continuously using the steerable antenna.
Radar image (left) of the oil spill (seen on right).
ISPAS has completed the installation of 4 new OSD radars. The radars small size and weight makes it easy to integrate without large structural foundations.
ISPAS participated in the 2018 “Oil on water” exercise offshore of Norway recently with a small version of the polarimetric Ku-band OSD radar. The small radar performed exceptionally well. An example showing the real time display of radar measurements of oil on seawater onboard a vessel is presented in this picture. The picture to the right presents the actual view of the sea.
The OSD radar
