Patent ID: 7417228
Filing Date: 2008-08-26
Classification: B01D,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting oil pollutions on water surfaces from an aircraft that takes into consideration smoothing of wind roughness and changing reflection coefficients on water surfaces, comprising the steps of: optically radiating a known clean water area at two wavelengths; optically radiating an investigated water area at two wavelengths; obtaining echo signals from the optically radiated known clean water area at two wavelengths and the investigated water area at two wavelengths; comparing the echo signals obtained from the radiation of the investigated water area at the two wavelengths with the echo signals obtained from the radiation of the clean water area at the two wavelengths, wherein comparing the echo signals includes comparing the powers of the echo signals obtained from the radiated investigated water area and the radiated known clean water area; and determining the presence of oil pollution on a water surface based on the following two inequalities fulfilled simultaneously: and N>1 where: λ 1 , λ 2 are wavelengths; and P(λ 1 ), P(λ 2 ) and P w (λ 1 ), P w (λ 2 ) are powers of echo signals at the wavelengths λ 1 , λ 2 received from investigated and clean water areas respectively.