SeaDarQ v3 Oil Spill Detection Reference Guide Rev 3.0

SeaDarQ v 3
Oil Spill Detection
Reference Guide
v 3.0
identification data
documentation title
SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection Reference Guide
documentation version
3.0
publication date
29-jan-2014
software product
SeaDarQ
software product version
v 3.0 – 3.2
issuing organization
Nortek BV
1
SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

Reference Guide v 3.0 p. 2 of 110
Contents
Contents .................................................................................................................................................................. 3
I Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 5
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Purpose...................................................................................................................................................... 5
3 Assumptions and scope ............................................................................................................................. 5
4 Main sections ............................................................................................................................................ 5
II Background Topics and Concepts ............................................................................................................. 6
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 6
2 Modes of operation / processing modes / modules ................................................................................... 6
3 Basic Principles ......................................................................................................................................... 7
4 SeaDarQ software configuration settings .................................................................................................. 9
5 Starting the system .................................................................................................................................. 12
6 User Interface Elements .......................................................................................................................... 13
7 Alarms and alarm stages ......................................................................................................................... 23
8 A note about examples ............................................................................................................................ 24
9 Background correction / Range correction.............................................................................................. 25
10 Confidence map / quality map ................................................................................................................ 30
11 False alarms ............................................................................................................................................ 32
12 Blocked areas .......................................................................................................................................... 44
13 Shadow detector ...................................................................................................................................... 49
14 Coastline database and land-mask .......................................................................................................... 52
15 AIS .......................................................................................................................................................... 53
16 Line- and histogram windows ................................................................................................................. 55
17 Using polygons ....................................................................................................................................... 56
18 Difference between “snapshot” and “Geo snapshot”.............................................................................. 59
19 Loading and using a Geo-encoded image ............................................................................................... 59
20 Latitude and longitude in degrees versus meters UTM ........................................................................... 59
21 Recording data ........................................................................................................................................ 60
III Dialogs .................................................................................................................................................... 61
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 61
2 Layers dialog ........................................................................................................................................... 62
3 Recording dialog ..................................................................................................................................... 65
4 Image alignment dialog ........................................................................................................................... 68
5 Polygon settings dialog ........................................................................................................................... 69
6 Snapshot Settings dialog ......................................................................................................................... 70
7 Alarm Settings dialog.............................................................................................................................. 72
8 GeoTIFF Snapshot settings dialog .......................................................................................................... 73
9 Radar settings dialog ............................................................................................................................... 75
10 Font Selection dialog .............................................................................................................................. 78
11 Line window ........................................................................................................................................... 79

Contents
12 Histogram window .................................................................................................................................. 84

13 Configuration Settings dialog ................................................................................................................. 88
14 File Settings dialog ................................................................................................................................. 94
IV Menus...................................................................................................................................................... 95
1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 95
2 Configuration menu ................................................................................................................................ 96
3 View menu .............................................................................................................................................. 99
4 Screen menu .......................................................................................................................................... 101
5 Recording menu .................................................................................................................................... 102
6 Image menu ........................................................................................................................................... 103
7 Polygon menu ....................................................................................................................................... 104
8 AIS menu .............................................................................................................................................. 105
9 Snap Shot menu .................................................................................................................................... 106
10 Oil Spill Tracker menu .......................................................................................................................... 107
11 Geo Snap Shot menu ............................................................................................................................. 108
12 Radar menu ........................................................................................................................................... 109
13 File menu .............................................................................................................................................. 110

I Introduction 1 Overview
I Introduction
1 OVERVIEW
This section gives a brief sketch of this reference manual, what it is for, and (under Assumptions and scope) what
it does not describe.
2 PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to give a full, exhaustive description of everything – but the details of how
and/or why to use certain options may be described elsewhere. Please be aware that “everything” is used here in
a very limited sense; it is limited to “everything about the use of the SeaDarQ software version 3 for Oil Spill
Detection operational use”. See the next section, “assumptions and scope”, for more details.
3 ASSUMPTIONS AND SCOPE

The focus of this reference manual is operational use of the SeaDarQ version 3 system for Oil Spill Detection.
There are actually two aspects to this statement:
Although the SeaDarQ system has other modules for other purposes, these are not described here, their existence
is merely referred to where relevant, e.g. where they appear in menus. They are not described or explained in any
detail in this reference manual. This manual is only about Oil Spill Detection.
Although there are other aspects to the software, the focus is on operational use of the software. Installation and
configuration are mentioned, but for details of installation and configuration of the hardware and software other
documents exist. Rather than repeat the information, these other documents are referred to.
The why of Oil Spill Detection, the fact that we´re talking about Oil Spill Detection on sea, and that we´re using
a radar system for this, are all taken for granted and not dwelled upon.
Throughout this manual, familiarity with the Microsoft Windows environment is taken for granted.
4 MAIN SECTIONS
The material in this reference manual is divided into several sections.
Section I briefly introduces this manual.
Section II, Background Topics and Concepts, describes a multitude of concepts that either relate to the basic
principles that the oil spill detection methods used in the SeaDarQ v3 software rely on, or that describe the
important aspects of operational use of the system. Here, the spotlight is on the why of using these features; the
how is described to some extent, but details about menus or dialogs that are used (the mechanics, so to speak) are
left to their own sections.
Section III, Dialogs, describes all the dialog windows that are available in the software, how to get to each, and
what each item in the dialogs does. For a limited number of dialog windows, there is an extensive description of
their use, but for most the details of how and why to use them is described in the topics in section II.
Section IV, Menus, describes all menus that are available in the software, and what each item in the menus does.
The details of how and why to use them is described in the topics in section II.

II Background Topics and Concepts 1 Overview
II Background Topics and Concepts
1 OVERVIEW
This section describes a variety of topics and concepts that warrant a more general description than can be given
in the description of individual entries.
2 MODES OF OPERATION / PROCESSING MODES / MODULES

SeaDarQ knows a number of different modes of operation, as will become clear from the Configuration menu.
Not all other menus are available in all modes; the section “Menus” – “Overview” gives some details.
Although the current manual has the “Oil Spill Detection from Radar” mode as its main focus, this section will
very briefly mention all different modes of operation.
First of all, there are three main processing modes:
• Oil Spill Detection
• Sea State, a.k.a. Hydrography and Wave Processing
• Enhanced CFAR, a.k.a. small object detection
Each of these three main processing modes is subdivided into two sub-modes, reflecting the source of radar data
to be processed:
• from radar
• from file
The “from radar” modes get the radar data from a live feed, via the RNI and the two data-acquisition cards that a
SeaDarQ computer is equipped with.
The “from file” modes get their data from pre-recorded raw radar data files. (Actually, these raw radar data files
also include NMEA data that was read in to the system concurrently with the radar data.) In “from file” processing
modes, the RNI and data-acquisition cards are not required for processing.
2.1 Oil Spill Detection
In Oil Spill Detection mode, use is made of the following facts:
• radar energy is reflected by small capillary waves and similar small-scale surface effects (also known as
sea surface clutter)
• oil slicks suppress these surface effects, resulting in areas of low radar reflection
In effect, the software is looking for dark areas in the radar image, and tries to determine whether any such areas
it finds match additional criteria that lend credit to the notion such areas are caused by an oil slick. The source
for such oil slicks is assumed to be a spill.
2.2 Sea State / Hydrography and Wave Processing
The small capillary waves (and other small-scale surface effects) also make it possible to track the sea surface in
detail, in particular the larger scale waves. The parameters that describe these larger scale waves can yield
information about the depth-averaged currents and the local depth, through the dispersion relation.
For a more detailed description of the Hydrography and Wave Processing mode of operation for now the
SeaDarQ Operational Manual v 2.1 should be used.
2.3 Enhanced CFAR / Small Object Detection
The Enhanced CFAR mode of operation uses algorithms to detect small and/or relatively fast-moving objects in
the radar image. There is currently no description of this mode of operation.

II Background Topics and Concepts 3 Basic Principles
3 BASIC PRINCIPLES
3.1 Introduction
Overview
This section describes the basic principles that underpin the SeaDarQ Oil Spill Detection system.
The initial draft will be an unstructured collection of concepts. Structure will be brought in at a later stage.
Purpose
This section is intended to provide a place to refer to for general background principles that the SeaDarQ Oil
Spill Detection system depends on. By having this single central place to refer to, it won’t be necessary to repeat
details in different places again and again.
Assumptions / scope
This section assumes a certain level of familiarity with the background principles, but not too high a level.
On occasion, this section refers back to the previous version of SeaDarQ, and its accompanying manual. Where
not mentioned explicitly, these references apply to SeaDarQ v 2.3.10; the accompanying manual is the
“SeaDarQ Operational Manual”, v 2.1. This v 2.1 manual is also referred to as the v 2.x manual.
3.2 Description
Details
• Radar energy is reflected off the sea-surface due to small waves (capillary waves, on the order of
centimetres wavelength). These small waves are normally present due to the wind, but they are
suppressed if there is an oil-slick present, resulting in a “dark patch” in the radar-reflection image.
The presence of an oil-slick is unfortunately not the only possible cause for one of these dark patches:
dark patches caused by other reasons than the presence of an oil-slick are called (or can lead to so-
called) “false alarms”.
• The SeaDarQ system gets the radar-data line-by-rotating-line. This data is both presented to the user as
a raw image, and processed in various ways to make regions where there might be an oil-slick more
clearly visible.
In SeaDarQ up to version 2.3.10, this enhancement was done primarily by averaging the radar-image
over several rotations of the radar antenna. Additional processing (e.g. correcting for the distance-
dependency of the intensity of the radar-reflection) and interpretation was left to the user (using
advanced options).
New in SeaDarQ 3.0, additional processing is done automatically. This ranges from an automatic
background correction (correcting for this mentioned distance-dependency), to advanced algorithms
that automatically recognize (most) oil-spills. Dedicated algorithms detect situations that have similar
characteristics as an oil-spill, but are in fact not an oil spill. An example is the radar-shadow behind a
ship.
• False alarms can still happen in SeaDarQ 3.0, which is why possible oil-slicks always require
confirmation by the user. To assist the user in deciding whether an alarm is an actual oil-slick, or a false
alarm, some of the information that the SeaDarQ algorithms use is also available to the user. An
example is the “confidence map”.
• Beyond assisting the user in deciding whether an alarm represents an actual oil-slick or is a false alarm,
the SeaDarQ software allows the user to document the situation in a number of ways, from taking
snapshots of the screen to recording the raw radar-signal.
• The user-interface is inspired by and to some extent mimics the appearance of a “regular” radar-screen,
in order to latch on to the familiarity personnel on the bridge would typically have with information
presented on a radar-screen.
• The intensity of the reflected radar energy falls off with distance, as it is “smeared out” over a circle
with diameter that increases as the distance increases. In principle, this follows the well-known inverse-
square law, ~ 1/R2, where R stands for distance. However, this applies two times, once for the radar
energy transmitted by the radar antenna, and once again for the radar energy reflected off a “target”: in
total this results in an radar energy intensity drop-off with distance R as ~ 1/R4. The sketch in figure 1 is
an attempt at illustration of this effect. (Details of the full so-called radar equation, which includes this
1/R4 behaviour, can be found in, for instance, “Radar Handbook” (2008, 3rd ed) by M.I. Skolnik (ed.).)

II Background Topics and Concepts 3 Basic Principles
The effective result of this phenomenon is, that the intensity of the image changes from the centre to the
edge of the radar image.
transmitting radar
reflecting target
radar energy arriving at target ~ 1/R2
iradar energy reflected by target

~ 1/R2 * incoming energy
Figure 1: Illustration of smearing out of radar energy
For purposes of oil spill detection, this is a distracting influence. To get rid of this distraction, SeaDarQ
v 3.0 can automatically compensate for this distance-dependency of the (background) radar-signal. This
background correction is switched on by default.
In SeaDarQ v 2.3.10, there is an advanced option to manually apply a background correction.
• The dark patches due to oil-slicks show up in the raw radar image, but so do dark patches due to other
causes. In particular, the trough of a “regular” sea-surface wave, with a wave-length of a meter or more,
is likely to lie in the radar-shadow of the nearby wave-crest. These troughs and crests lead to many
small light and dark patches in the raw radar image, distracting from and obscuring the dark patches
that are of more interest for oil spill detection purposes. To get rid of these distracting small features in
the image, for oil spill detection the raw radar image is not shown on screen (that layer should be
switched off), but instead the processed image is used. The processing done on the image is, amongst
others, an averaging in time. As the meter-plus waves move through the image, averaging in time
smears them out. Slower-moving objects, such as ships and oil-slicks, barely move position in the
averaging time that is used, and thus remain visible.
• For advanced use, it is possible to view the confidence map. In this view of the processed radar image,
colours indicate the level of confidence the algorithms have in each region being an oil spill (hence the
name of this view). Note that the “high confidence” regions are not immediately flagged in the
“regular” enhanced image view; they are flagged if certain additional criteria are satisfied. These
additional criteria include, amongst others, the size of the region, and the length of time it has been
present. Naturally, these criteria are chosen with the properties and behaviour of oil-slicks in mind.
• In order to sketch the backgrounds of false alarms, let’s go back to the basic principle behind SeaDarQ:
the sea is usually covered with small-scale waves that reflect radar. These small waves are primarily
generated by the wind, and these waves are suppressed by an oil-slick.
Straight away, this gives rise to two scenarios where SeaDarQ might get confused: not all wave-
suppression is caused by an oil-slick, and not all absence of a radar-reflection is caused by the absence
of small, reflecting waves. Both these cases can be caused by other ships (or other static structures)..
A ship gives a very hard radar-reflection; so hard, you could say, that there won’t be any radar energy
left to look beyond the ship: a ship causes a radar-shadow behind it (seen from the SeaDarQ radar). This
lack of radar-reflection behind a ship can be mistaken for an oil-spill (although SeaDarQ 3 now has
extra algorithms to recognize this scenario). It is thus important to be able to recognize a ship in the
radar-image, and the radar-shadow it may cause.
This same phenomenon can also occur with other objects that cause a hard radar-reflection, and can
even happen with the coast-line.
Another reason there may be no radar-reflection is if there are no small waves due to other causes than
suppression by an oil-slick. A ship or other large structure may sufficiently block the wind that it causes
a wind-shadow, with less or no small waves in that shadow-area. To recognize this in a radar-image, it
is important to know the wind-direction.
A radar- or wind-shadow caused by a ship has recognizable characteristics. But there are other reasons
why the surface-waves may be interfered with or may be suppressed, not all of them even clear or well-
understood.

II Background Topics and Concepts 4 SeaDarQ software configuration settings
4 SEADARQ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

4.1 Overview
This section describes the software configuration of SeaDarQ 3, especially prior to first use. Although many if
not most of the steps are required for other modes of operation as well, the focus is solely on Oil Spill Detection
mode.
This section mentions many of the SeaDarQ menus and configuration dialogs, but does not go into all details of
these menus and windows. For details, see the sections “Menus” and “Dialogs”, where each menu item and each
dialog option is discussed in more detail. For full understanding, a combination of these sections is needed (this
section on configuration, and the “Menus” and “Dialogs” sections).
This subsection relies heavily on and refers to older documents from the SeaDarQ 2.x lineage. This is in part
related to the fact that large parts of the procedure are still mostly the same, especially with respect to
hardware configuration.
4.2 General configuration

In short, for a freshly arrived SeaDarQ system consisting of a SeaDarQ PC, RNI, and GEM radar installation, the
following steps need to be taken:
step for details, see: remarks

• overall process On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4) (description of the overall
process)
• radar tuning Radar Controller Manual Version 1.0
“hardware” configuration On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4)

• pulse repetition On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4)
frequency section 4.1, sub 1. (rev. 0.4: p. 4)
• angular encoder On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4)
device driver setting section 4.1, sub 2. (rev. 0.4: p. 4 – 5)
• RNI signal level On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4) Special settings in
adjustment section 4.1, sub 3. (rev. 0.4: p. 5 – 7) SeaDarQ 3 required
• radar video lines per On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4)
rotation section 4.1, sub 4. (rev. 0.4: p. 7)
• trigger delay On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4) Can be set in 3 different
section 4.1, sub 5. (rev. 0.4: p. 7 – 8) places
• North alignment On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4) can use AIS as well to
section 4.1, sub 6. (rev. 0.4: p. 9) determine North offset
After the above configuration steps have been completed, certain settings in the SeaDarQ program itself may
require adjustment. On-Site Installation and Configuration section 4.3.1 (rev. 0.4: p. 10) gives a brief list of
settings to look at.
Notes:
• In the process of fine-tuning configuration settings, it is useful to save the configuration settings
of a certain moment in time to an XML configuration file (see Configuration Export XML
Configuration; also in this Reference Guide, in the section Menus). This allows for a fall-back in
case the fine-tuning turns out unsatisfactory.
• Changes to configuration settings are not saved automatically: if not saved explicitly, a change
of operating mode or a restart of the program will revert back to the settings in the registry (for
that mode).
Further recommended configuration steps for SeaDarQ 3 are described in the following sub-sections (Radar
Configuration, Image Configuration, and Tracker Configuration). Operational Image Configuration is described
after that. Advanced options are the subject of the next section (after these sub-sections).

Radar Configuration
The most important configuration option for the radar acquisition settings is the range. This is set in the Radar
Settings dialog window.
Considerations are:
• A larger range covers a larger area but gives lower resolution (each pixel covers a larger surface area).
• A larger range also suffers from the fact that progressively less radar energy is returned at larger
distance (see Background Topics and Concepts). This means that at larger distances, the signal levels go
down, and the signal-to-noise ratio becomes worse.
• A smaller range covers a smaller area, but gives better resolution (more details); smaller features will be
visible.
Note:
• If the Trigger delay is not set correctly (see On-Site Installation and Configuration) the range set in the
Radar Settings dialog window will not correspond to the maximum range reported on the SeaDarQ
main screen.
General recommendation / best practise: keep the range below 3 to 7 km (about 2 to 4½ miles, or about 1½ to 4
nm), depending on the height at which the radar antenna is mounted.
Image Configuration
Some basic but useful settings (and how to select them, with defaults where applicable):
• Switch off radar layer, show On-screen menu selection

enhanced image layer
• AIS: layer transparent, show AIS menu item
labels off, show tracks on
• Rings on/off as desired On-screen menu selection
• North up Screen menu item
• Degrees / meter UTM View menu item default: degrees
• Km / nm as desired View menu item default km
• Details in the Navigation Panel:
o Range Always shown
o Lat, Lon Latitude and longitude, always shown; units as selected
(degrees or meter UTM)
o HDG Heading, optional; default: not shown
select via ConfigurationSettingsProcessing Parameters
o STW Speed through water, optional; default: not shown
o DPTH Depth, optional; default: not shown
Note that some of the navigation panel items require a suitable NMEA source to be connected to a NMEA input
port on the RNI.
Tracker Configuration
Do not adjust. This is modified only for special circumstances.
Note: previously existing tabs in the Configuration Setup… dialog window, “Segmentation Settings” and
“Tracker Settings”, have been removed in SeaDarQ v 3.2.
Operational Image Configuration

In addition (SeaDarQ 3 specific), the following settings are recommended for operational use:
Basic settings:
• DMODE UI Elements, Settings panel recommended start-off
(Detection Mode) point: LOW FAR
(detection mode: low false
alarm rate)


• FASTD UI Elements, Settings panel recommended start-off
(Fast Detection) point: OFF (no fast
detection)
• hide the radar layer UI Elements, Layers panel; this is the recommended
(image visibility) also Layers dialog operating mode for oil
spill detection
Optional settings:
• block-off disturbing Blocked Areas
(static) reflections
• range correction Background Correction / Range Correction default: automatic, normal
Recording snapshots, geo snapshots, or raw radar video lines:

See descriptions in this Reference Guide:
• Recording menu & Recording Dialog window
• Snapshot menu & snapshot settings dialog
• Geo snap shot menu & GeoTIFF snapshot settings dialog
Advanced Settings (not recommended for general use, only in special cases):
• adjust alarm Alarm settings dialog minimum area and time
thresholds present before triggering
and alarm
4.3 Advanced options

Via the Configuration menu, it is possible to switch on (enable) Advanced Options.
Examples of use where it is necessary to switch on (enable) Advanced Options:

• Temporarily switching off Tuning and Range corrections (e.g. in order to perform RNI signal level
adjustment)
• Switching the Range correction to Rain mode.
Where a feature has Advanced Options that can be used by switching on (enabling) Advanced Options via the
Configuration menu, this will be mentioned in the description of the feature. There is no “master list” of all
advanced options.
4.4 Save configuration
The SeaDarQ configuration settings are mode-dependent. The settings for the current mode can be saved in two
different ways:
• In the registry (under Local User, so strictly speaking these settings are also dependent on the log-in
credentials) – Configuration ► Save Configuration
• In an XML file – Configuration ► Export XML Configuration
The settings in the registry determine the default settings used when SeaDarQ either starts in this mode, or when
it is changed into this mode.
Settings saved to an XML file can later be restored from this file (see the descriptions in the section Menus,
Configuration Menu, items Save Configuration, Export XML Configuration, Import XML Configuration, Set
Configuration as Default, and Restore Factory Defaults).
Note: changes to configuration settings are not saved automatically: if not saved explicitly, a change of operating
mode or a restart of the program will revert back to the settings in the registry (for that mode).
Hint: When the system is configured and working correctly, save the configuration to an XML file for safe-
keeping, so you have a good base-line to fall back on should future changes to settings prove unsatisfactory.

II Background Topics and Concepts 5 Starting the system
5 STARTING THE SYSTEM

First start the radar system itself. For radars other than from GEM Elettronica, refer to the radar manufacturers
instructions. Only a GEM radar connected to the SeaDarQ computer, with the proper additional software
installed, can be started from the SeaDarQ computer, via the Radar Controller program. See the Radar Controller
Manual Version 1.0 for details.
After that, go through the following steps:
(From OPERATIONAL MANUAL V 2.1: )

• Push the “Radar” button in the menu bar and select “Settings” from the menu:
• Select the range in the list box and press “Apply”. Do not change the other settings!
• Press the “Start” button.
The system starts calibrating; this can take approx. 1 minute.
• Close the dialog box by pushing OK.
Once the calibration is completed, the radar image appears in the main window and a red rotation marker moves
around the scale indicating that the system is locked on the radar and is receiving radar lines.
• ! If the red rotation marker is NOT moving, the system is not functioning normal!
• Check if the HDG, the LAT and LON fields in the upper right corner of the screen contain valid data. This
indicates that the SeaDarQ system receives data from the ship’s navigation system.
• ! If these are NOT correct, please check cabling, GPS and Gyro!
The SeaDarQ system is now operational.

II Background Topics and Concepts 6 User Interface Elements
6 USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS

6.1 Introduction
Overview
This section describes the elements that are visible on the SeaDarQ main screen during normal operation in Oil
Spill Detection mode.
Purpose
The purpose of this description is to familiarize the user with the main elements that are present on the SeaDarQ
screen.
Assumptions and scope

This description assumes that the SeaDarQ OSD system is up and running; it does not describe how to get it in
that state, nor does it describe how to change settings. It only describes what is visible.
In particular, this description assumes the SeaDarQ OSD system receives a radar signal (with all necessary
adjustments made).
This section does assume the user has some basic familiarity with a Microsoft Windows environment, so
concepts such as “hover the mouse over a button to view the tooltip” are not explained.
6.2 SeaDarQ main screen

Figure 2 shows the panels and areas in the SeaDarQ screen:
a) radar image f) settings
b) button bar (aka toolbar) g) navigation
c) status bar h) meteo
d) menubar i) oil spills detected
e) layers j) status
e b
f h
j
c
Figure 2: SeaDarQ main screen, and its elements

The individual elements are described in more detail below.

6.3 Radar image

What the radar image area shows depends on what layers are active. The most relevant possibilities (in terms of
what is showing) are:
• the radar image itself
• the enhanced image
• the confidence map
Figure 3, figure 4 and figure 5 show examples.
Figure 3: The (raw) radar image
Figure 4: The enhanced image
Figure 5: The confidence map

Changing the relevant layer settings is described in the sub-section “Layers”. For a detailed description of all
available layers, see the description of the Layers Dialog window in the section Dialogs.
Interpretation and practical use of the different layers is described throughout this manual, as and where
appropriate.
Note that for normal Oil Spill Detection operation, the Enhanced layer should be visible, which means the Radar
layer should be hidden.
There are certain elements and features of the radar screen that warrant some extra explanation (see figure 6).
radar active indication To indicate that the SeaDarQ system is receiving radar signals, there is a thin red
rotation marker moving around the edge of the radar image.
ship direction If the SeaDarQ system is installed on a ship, the ship’s direction (heading or bearing) is
indicated by a blue line from the centre of the radar image to its edge.
Notes:
• The menu-option Screen North Up determines whether the top of the radar image (the “up”
direction) corresponds to North, or to the ship’s direction.
• Display of the ship’s heading depends on the heading or bearing signal (a.k.a. gyro) being connected to
one of the NMEA ports on the RNI unit that is part of the SeaDarQ system
course over ground COG = Course over Ground = GPS-derived actual course. This may be different from
the ship’s direction, due to currents and wind. Provided this GPS signal is supplied to
the SeaDarQ’s RNI unit, this is indicated by a small blue line-marker at the edge of the
radar image
zooming in and out

There are a number of ways to
zoom in to and out of the radar
image:
• using the scroll wheel on
red radar rotation
the mouse (if present)
marker
• left-click to zoom in, right-
click to zoom out
• Screen Fit will zoom
out completely
• pressing any key1 while
zoomed in will temporarily
(for as long as that key
remains pressed) zoom out
completely
• pressing any key1 while ship’s direction
zoomed in (see above) and
then pressing any other CoG marker
key1 will zoom out
completely, and stay
zoomed out
1
: with the exception of special keys Figure 6: Details in the radar and enhanced image
CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK,
PRTSCRN, SCRLK, ALT
Behaviour after the use of one of the function keys may depend on special functionality associated with that
function key. Results may be unexpected, and use of function keys for zoom-out is not recommended.
Panning is not directly supported, but the position of the cursor determines the location that remains fixed during
zoom in or out (until the image reaches full zoom-out).

6.4 Button bar / toolbar

The button bar, also known as toolbar, located at the top of the window, just below the menu bar, contains some
buttons that provide easy access to a number of often-used features. What buttons are available depends on the
state of the program (whether it is getting a live radar signal or is playing back a recording). You can show or
hide the toolbar through the menu “View”, item “Toolbars”.
If you hover the cursor over a button in the toolbar, a tooltip will give a very brief description of the functionality
of that button.
Figure 7 shows the toolbar with the buttons that are present when SeaDarQ is in “Oil Spill Detection from
Radar” mode. Table 1 lists the buttons, their functionality (as given by the tooltip for that button), and what
menu-option it corresponds to.
Figure 7: The button- or toolbar
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) (k)
button tooltip description corresponding menu option

(a) Show or hide the line view. View Line Window
Toggle line view.
(b) Show or hide the histogram view. View Histogram Window
Toggle histogram view.
(c) Toggles between north and heading up Screen North Up
(d) Fits the radar view in the window Screen Fit
(e) View the layer dialog Screen Layers …
(f) Saves a polygon to a file Polygon Save to File …
(g) Load a polygon from File Polygon Load from File …
(h) Adds a polygon Polygon Add Polygon
(i) Add a line Polygon Add Line
(j) Remove all polygons Polygon Remove All
(k) Writes a regular snapshot of the screen to a Snap Shot Take Snap Shot
(geo encoded TIFF) File
Table 1: Details of the toolbar buttons
6.5 Status bar
The status bar is located at the bottom of the SeaDarQ window. Figure 8 shows the status bar. Table 2 lists the
fields on the status bar, and what they show.
Figure 8: The status bar
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)
button label description comments

(a) Manual Status of the snapshot taker: Manual or Auto When started to take snapshots
(this refers to regular snapshots) in automatic mode, also
indicates the time between
snapshots
(b) Chart Indicates whether a chart-server is active
(c) BRG / DIST Shows the direction (bearing, BRG) in
degrees and the distance (DIST) in
kilometres (km) or nautical miles (NM) of
the point on the radar image that the cursor
is over
(d) N/S E/W Shows the geographical coordinates of the (Assumes the geographical
point on the radar image that the cursor is location of the radar is given,
over either as a static position, or
via NMEA by a GPS device)

button label description comments

(e) UTC Shows the time, as UTC (Universal Time
Code)
(f) ../../…. Shows the date (as mm/dd/yyyy)
Table 2: Details that are shown in the status bar
Note: you can toggle between a blank status bar and one that shows the information described by using the ALT
key (provided SeaDarQ is not in full screen mode).
Actually, ALT is intercepted by Windows, and pre-selects the “Windows meta menu” (containing Restore,
Move, etc) in keyboard select mode
6.6 Menu bar

The menu bar is located at the top of the SeaDarQ window. Certain menu items are always present in the same
location, but other menu items are only available in certain operating modes of SeaDarQ. Furthermore, when
switching from one mode to another, some of these menus may move to a different place on the menu bar: the
order of the menus may change.
The SeaDarQ application does not have the standard Windows menus “File” or “Edit”, as SeaDarQ operation is
not centred around documents, and these menus would thus not fulfil any sensible purpose.
For an exhaustive description of all menus and menu items, see the section Menus.
6.7 Layers
The “Layers” panel lists the layers that are most important in Oil Spill Detection mode, and allows a quick and
convenient way to cycle through the three different modes there are for each layer.
Figure 9 shows the “Layers” panel in isolation.
Note that the order in which the layers are listed can change, depending on the way SeaDarQ is started, and the
history of SeaDarQ processing modes.
The high-to-low sequencing of layers with regards to visibility and obscuring of deeper (lower) layers can be
seen in the “Layers” dialog window; see the section Dialogs for details.
Figure 9: The layers panel
The second column in this panel indicates the visibility of each of the layers. There are three options for the
visibility of a layer:
• show A layer with status “show” is visible, provided it is not obscured by a higher layer with
status “show”. A layer with status “show” will block (obscure) the visibility of deeper
(lower) layers.
• transp (transparent) A layer with status “transparent” is visible, but allows the next deeper layer
(or layers) with status “visible” (or “transparent”) to show through
• hide A layer with status “hide” is not visible, and does not obstruct the view of deeper layers
To change the status of one of these layers, do one of the following:

o hover the mouse over the status indication (the word “show”, “transp” or “hide”), and use the scroll
wheel on the mouse to cycle through the options
o double-left-click on the status indication to set the status to the next one in the list of the three possible
status-states
o double-right-click on the status indication to set the status to the previous one in the list of the three
possible status-states

Some notes:
• below these layers is the confidence map (layer “Quality” in the “Layers” dialog window), so if both
layers radar and enhanced are hidden or transparent, this confidence map will be visible
• there are extensive possibilities to adjust the colours, transparency and visibility of these and all other
available layers through the “Layers” dialog window. Details can be found in the section Dialogs, in the
sub-section Layers Dialog.
• For normal Oil Spill Detection mode, the Radar layer should be switched off (hide), making the
Enhanced layer the primary working layer.
Table 3 lists the layers that are available in this panel in “Oil Spill from Radar” mode, with a short description.
Where relevant, the table indicates where you can find further details.
layer name description remarks

CHART if a chart server provides SeaDarQ with (sea) charts,
this is the layer that contains the chart for the current
location
IMAGE if an image has been loaded (see reference), this is the see section “Loading and using a
layer that contains it Geo-encoded image”
RADAR the raw radar image
AIS information from the Automatic Identification System, see section “AIS”
provided this information is fed into the SeaDarQ
system via NMEA
ENHANCED the enhanced, processed radar image
Table 3: Description of the standard layers in "Oil Spill from Radar" mode
6.8 Settings
The details which show up in the panel “Settings” depends on both the SeaDarQ operating mode, and on whether
Advanced Options are enabled or not in the Configuration menu. This section only describes SeaDarQ in Oil
Spill Detection mode. Figure 10 and figure 11 show the panel for the situation where Advanced Options are
disabled and enabled, respectively.
Note that the order in which the settings are listed can change, depending on the way SeaDarQ is started, and the
history of SeaDarQ processing modes.
Changing the active option for these settings works similar as described for “Layers” (with the exception of the
slider controls):
• hovering the mouse over a setting and using the scroll wheel cycles through the options for that setting
• double-left-clicking changes the setting to the next option
• double-right-clicking changes the setting to the previous option
Options to change the setting of the slider controls are:
• hovering the mouse over the slider bar and using the scroll wheel to move the slider left or right
• clicking-and-dragging the slider to the desired setting
Note that double-clicking on and single- or double-clicking next to a slider do not have an effect
If tuning is set to manual, two extra sliders appear, gain and offset. Under normal circumstances, tuning should
be kept to auto. The tuning setting does not appear in this panel if Enable Advanced Options in the Configuration
Menu is not switched on (indicated by a check-mark). This is also true of the setting for the enhancement level
(enh lvl)
Table 4 lists the different setting abbreviations in the Settings panel, what the abbreviation stands for, and what
the possible settings are.

Figure 10: The settings panel, with "Advanced Figure 11: The settings panel, with "Advanced
Options" disabled Options" enabled
abbreviation meaning possible settings remarks

RINGS show rings in the radar image OFF do not show rings
at the given intervals (list dependent on setting for range, and
on setting for km or NM)
DMODE Detection Mode HIGH DR high detection rate default: STANDARD
STANDARD standard detection rate
LOW FAR low false alarm rate
USER user mode (only available
with Enable Advanced
Options on)
OFF no automatic oil spill
detection (only available
with Enable Advanced
Options on)
FASTD Fast Detection ON fast oil spill detection on
OFF no fast oil spill detection
BRIGHT brightness of the radar image
CONT contrast of the radar image
TUNING amplification and offset AUTO automatic adjustment of default: AUTO
settings for the incoming tuning parameters
radar signal MANUAL manual adjustment by
means of the sliders that
become visible
OFF no adjustment of the
incoming radar signal
GAIN amplification setting
OFFSET offset setting
ENH LVL enhancement level OFF default: MAX
MIN 8
LIGHT 16
STD 32
MAX 64
Table 4: Description of the different settings in the Settings panel
Note that for Oil Spill Detection mode, the enhancement level should be set to MAX, otherwise false alarms on
all sorts of shadows will occur.

6.9 Navigation
The details that show up in the “Navigation” panel (see figure 12) depend on the configuration settings. By
default, range and location (latitude and longitude) are shown (where range is the maximum distance SeaDarQ
was configured to use for the radar image – see Configuring Radar). In addition, it is possible to show heading
(HDG), speed (STW, for Speed Through the Water) and depth (DPTH). For these last three parameters SeaDarQ
depends on external data-feeds from NMEA devices.
Whether latitude and longitude are shown as degrees north/south and east/west, or as meters UTM, can be
selected through the “View” menu.
Figure 12: The navigation panel
6.10 Meteo
The “Meteo” panel (see figure 13) will show the wind speed (WSPEED) and wind direction (WDIR), provided a
(NMEA) wind-sensor is connected to the system.
Figure 13: The Meteo panel

6.11 Oil spills detected

The details shown in the “Oil Spills Detected” panel change dynamically, based on whether any spills have been
detected, their observed properties (amongst others, area and displacement speed), and whether the mouse is
hovering over a suspected oil spill or not.
Figure 15 shows an example of the details listed for a detected spill; table 5 lists the parameters reported, with
some comments. (Note that where this table mentions “oil spill”, this can refer to all categories of oil spill that
SeaDarQ uses internally, as described in Section 7, Alarms and alarm stages.)
parameter comments
ID identification number assigned to the oil spill
Note: the color of the dot in between “ID” and the ID-number indicates the status of the oil spill:
red for “unidentified” (i.e., unconfirmed); green for “Confirmed Oil Spill” or “Discard” (i.e.,
mark as not an oil spill)
LAT latitude of the centre of the oil spill (in degrees or m UTM, depending on the setting for that)
LON longitude of the centre of the oil spill
AREA area of the oil spill in km2 of nm2
DETECTED time (in UTC) that the oil spill was first detected
SPEED apparent displacement speed of the centre of the oil spill
HEADING direction in which the centre of the oil spill is moving
CONFIRMED whether the operator has manually marked the oil spill as either a confirmed spill, or a confirmed
non-spill (false alarm)
Table 5: Parameters reported for (suspected) oil spills
Figure 14: The Oil Spills Detected panel, when no oil Figure 15: The Oil Spills Detected panel, when
spills are detected suspected oil spills have been detected

6.12 Status
The contents of the “Status” panel (see figure 16) depend on some specific settings in the Configuration
Setup… window, on tab “Processing Parameters”. Table 6 lists the abbreviations in the Status panel, what they
stand for, and what option in the Processing Parameters tab determines their visibility.
Figure 16: The status panel
abbreviation meaning option on Processing Parameters tab

RTIME rotation time of the radar antenna (in seconds Show Rotation Time
per revolution)
TIME timestamp for the image (in UTC; Show Time Stamp
hours:minutes:seconds.decimal fraction of
second)
RETIME real time elapsed between playback images (only relevant for “… from file” modes)
Tracker Status a “moving light” indication of internal activity (always shown)
of the tracker algorithm (except for the first 32
radar revolutions, when the tracker is still
initializing)
Table 6: Details for the status panel

II Background Topics and Concepts 7 Alarms and alarm stages
7 ALARMS AND ALARM STAGES

7.1 Description
Most of the time, SeaDarQ will process the incoming radar signal, and not report anything amiss. On occasion,
however, the oil spill detection algorithms will trigger an alarm.
The on-screen indication and appearance of an alarm is two-fold:
• the potential spill is outlined in the radar image (in a color that depends on the stage of the alarm), and it
is assigned an ID.
Actually, the potential spill or area of alarm is indicated by an outline only when the mouse hovers
inside that area; if the mouse is outside of the area, it is indicated with a solid fill.
• the potential spill is listed in the panel “Oil Spills Detected”, with the same ID it has in the radar image
The alarms can move through several stages, depending on the conditions, circumstances, and operator actions.
(Note: as of version 3.2 of the SeaDarQ software, the stages “alarm/unconfirmed oil spill/track” and
“alarm/unconfirmed oil spill – persistent/alarm” are no longer distinguished.)
Suspect area / potential spill “candidate” (“invisible”)

The SeaDarQ algorithms have detected an area of low radar reflection. The false alarm algorithms have
not classified it as a ship’s shadow or coast-line related artefact. It is therefore classified as a “potential
spill”. Potential spills are indicated in blue.
Alarm / unconfirmed oil spill “track”
The area that a potential spill occupies has grown larger than the set threshold, and the spill has been
present for longer than the pre-set minimum time. This means it is now highly likely that the suspect area
is indeed an actual oil spill. It is now classified as an “unconfirmed oil spill”, and indicated in dark red.
Alarm / unconfirmed oil spill – persistent “alarm”
If an unconfirmed oil spill is present for longer than a further pre-set minimum time, it is re-classified as a
high-likelihood unconfirmed oil spill. It is indicated in the radar image in blinking dark and light red.
Confirmed oil spill
A potential or unconfirmed oil spill (or even a previously discarded spill) can only become a confirmed
oil spill through operator action: right-clicking inside the outline of a potential or unconfirmed oil spill
and selecting “Confirmed Oil Spill” from the pop-up menu. A “confirmed oil spill” is indicated in light
green.
Discarded oil spill
A potential, confirmed, or unconfirmed oil spill can be discarded by right-clicking inside the outline of
the area, and selecting “Discard” from the pop-up menu. A discarded alarm-area remains indicated in the
radar image in dark green (so it is possible to re-classify it later on).
Note that several of the operator actions mentioned above can also be performed in a slightly different form in
the “Oil Spills Detected” panel. See the manual section “User Interface elements” for details.
7.2 Purpose
The reason alarms are subdivided into stages is the risk of a false alarm, and the potential cost of reacting to a
false alarm. The different stages alert the operator that something could be amiss; as the alarm progresses
through the stages, it satisfies more and more characteristics of a true oil slick, warranting more and more
attention. In the end, though, the operator has the final say, and is the one to decide if an alarm represents a true
oil spill.
False alarms and a number of their possible causes are detailed in the section “False Alarms”.
7.3 Enabling alarms in SeaDarQ
Alarms are enabled at installation, and by default. Should they have been disabled for whatever reason, the way
to (re-) enable them is to check all elements that are needed for its proper operation:
• Make sure DMODE is not switched off (set it to its default of LOW FAR, low false alarm rate)
• Make sure the Detections layer is visible (“Show” ticked, and some colour that is visible against the
background)
• the Enhanced layer is the one of interest, so make sure it is visible (layers dialog) and not obscured by
the Radar layer
• Check that the alarm thresholds are sensible or close to defaults (see section “Alarm settings dialog”;
defaults are 1000 m2 for the area threshold, and 5 minutes for the persistence threshold).
• Make sure the Shadow detector is switched on (“Shadow detector” tab in the Configuration Settings
dialog)

II Background Topics and Concepts 8 A note about examples
• Make sure the range correction is set to automatic, normal mode (see Line Window, Advanced Options
enabled). Note that if advanced options are disabled, SeaDarQ 3 will automatically switch range
correction to automatic, normal mode.
The quickest way to get the whole system operating with its default settings is of course to Reset it to Factory
Defaults (see Configuration Menu). Of course this will also abandon any other special settings that might have
been configured.
An alternative could be to restore from an XML configuration file; of course this does require the forethought of
saving such a file when the system is fine-tuned into a good operating state.
7.4 Use
See also “Oil Spills Detected” in section 6, “User Interface Elements”
Reaction to an alarm / possible follow-up actions

mark “confirmed oil spill” / “not an oil spill”
Right-click, select from pop-up menu
or
double-left-click → confirm
double-right-click → (nothing → pop-up menu)
Figure 17: The right-click pop-up menu for an oil-

spill alarm
reported properties
See “Oil spills detected” in section 6, “User Interface
Elements”
Double-(left)-click the dot → confirm as oil spill (dot

turns green)
Figure 18: The properties of an oil spill that is

hovered over with the mouse
8 A NOTE ABOUT EXAMPLES

For normal Oil Spill Detection operation, the Enhanced layer should be active, with the radar layer switched off.
In the examples we still show both the Radar image and the Enhanced image side-by-side.
For other elements in the images (e.g., the blue heading or direction line), see also the chapter “User Interface
Elements”.

II Background Topics and Concepts 9 Background correction / Range correction
9 BACKGROUND CORRECTION / RANGE CORRECTION

9.1 Description
Background correction or range correction refers to the algorithms that SeaDarQ 3 uses to cope with the fact that
the intensity of reflected radar energy (known as backscatter) is not uniform over the radar image, but is
dependent on the distance of the object that reflects the radar energy. See the section “Backgrounds” for a brief
explanation of this distance dependency. The factors contributing to this variation of backscatter include wind
direction, wave direction, and sea state.
For correct operation of the SeaDarQ Oil Spill Detection algorithms, these variations are compensated for in
such a way that the background intensity of the radar energy reflected off the sea surface is uniform over the
image.
9.2 Purpose
The intensity fall-off with distance means that at distance, the difference between a patch of sea with reduced
radar-reflection due to an oil-slick is much more difficult to distinguish from the background reflections: very
dark versus slightly less dark. Figure 19 and figure 20 show an example, where the oil-slick is more and more
difficult to distinguish the farther away it is. With automatic background correction switched on, the enhanced
image looks like figure 22, where the oil-slick is now much easier to see even at larger distances.
Figure 19: Radar image, range correction off Figure 20: Enhanced image, range correction off
Figure 21: Radar image, range correction on Figure 22: Enhanced image, range correction on
9.3 Range correction in SeaDarQ

In SeaDarQ 3, Automatic Background Correction is switched on by default. To switch it off, or to change to one
of the advanced background correction options, you need to switch on “Advanced Options” (see “Configuration
Menu”), and open the “Line” window (see “View Menu”). See the separate sub-section “Line Window” in the
section “Dialogs” for details on the advanced options in the Line window, in particular the “Range Correction
Curve” menu that is available in this mode.

9.4 Use
In SeaDarQ 3, Automatic Background Correction is switched on by default, using the “Normal Mode” range
correction algorithms. See below under “Advanced use” for use of other options.
9.5 Practical examples
The example in figure 24 shows a situation where the (unprocessed) radar intensity not only shows its normal
behaviour with respect to distance, but also shows a slightly different behaviour depending on direction, due to
the direction the wind is blowing. The figures to the right of the radar image show how the radar intensity falls
off with distance from the centre; the top-right image and the one immediately below it show this behaviour for
different directions, 20° and 115° from the North, respectively.
020°
Figure 23: Radar intensity along a line from the center in the 020°
direction
115°
Figure 24: Radar image, range Figure 25: Radar intensity along a line from the center in the 115°
correction off direction
Figure 26: Radar intensity along a line from the center in the 020°
direction
Figure 27: Radar image, range Figure 28: Radar intensity along a line from the center in the 115°
correction on direction
The three images in the bottom of the figure show the same situation, but with the automatic range correction
switched on. Not only is the radar image itself much more uniform, the radar intensity behaviour along the 20°
and 115° lines shows, too, that the range-corrected intensity hardly changes with distance, and that the difference
between the two directions is much less as well.

The real usefulness of this range correction becomes apparent when we compare the images in figure 29 to
figure 33, showing the same situation: there is an oil spill present. (The images are from several minutes later
than the ones in the previous figure; the ship has changed course, as is apparent from the blue heading line.)
The top two images show the raw radar image and the enhanced image, without range correction.
The second row of images shows the radar and enhanced images with normal automatic range correction. The
last image on the bottom row is identical to the enhanced image with normal automatic range correction, with the
addition of the automatic detection that is the important feature of SeaDarQ v 3.x.
It is clear that with normal automatic range correction on the oil spill is much easier to recognize.
Figure 29: Radar image, range correction off Figure 30: Enhanced image, range correction off
Figure 31: Radar image, range correction on Figure 32: Enhanced image, range correction on
Figure 33: Enhanced image, range correction on,

automatic detection on.

9.6 Advanced use

SeaDarQ has an advanced option “Automatic Range Correction, Rain Mode”, which can be used in case heavy
rain indirectly causes false alarms. This option is one of the range correction options that exist in SeaDarQ.
These options can be accessed as described in section 9.3 above:
• Make sure “Advanced Options” are enabled (Configuration menu)
• Open the “Line” window (View menu, or “Toggle line view” button from the toolbar)
• The Range Correction options can be accessed from the “Range Correction Curve” drop-down menu
(see the description of the Line Window in the section “Dialogs”, e.g. Figure 139: Menu items and sub-
menu in the "Range Correction Curve" menu on page 81)
The reason rain can cause false alarms is its influence on the automatic range correction algorithms. Rain itself
can cause a higher radar reflection, and the impact of the raindrops on the sea-surface can lead to a locally
increased radar reflection, too. This localized higher radar reflection (or background intensity) can throw off the
automatic range correction algorithms, causing other areas with a lower radar reflection to become unduly
emphasized, thereby possibly triggering a false alarm.
Figure 34 to figure 42 show a situation where rain is visible in the radar images and especially in the enhanced
images. The figures show the radar image, enhanced image, and the confidence map, for each of the automatic
range correction options (off, normal, and rain mode).
In practical situations, the normal automatic range correction is usually sufficient.
Apart from rain mode, there is an option for manual range correction. It is still present in the software, but that is
primarily for historical reasons. It is almost impossible to do better than the automatic algorithms with a manual
range correction.
The “mechanics” of creating and manipulating a manual range correction curve are described in section “Line
Window”, in the chapter “Dialogs”.
Figure 34: Rain, range correction Figure 35: Rain, range correction Figure 36: Rain, range correction
off (radar image) off (enhanced image) off (confidence map)
normal (radar image) normal (enhanced image) normal (confidence map)

rain mode (radar image) rain mode (enhanced image) rain mode (confidence map)

II Background Topics and Concepts 10 Confidence map / quality map
10 CONFIDENCE MAP / QUALITY MAP

10.1 Description
The Confidence or Quality Map is an internally used intermediate interpretation of the incoming radar-image. It
shows the level of likelihood the algorithms assign to each part of the radar-image of that area being an oil-slick.
10.2 Purpose
As mentioned, the confidence or quality map is used internally by the software to recognize oil spills
automatically. It is available for viewing by the experienced user/operator to assist in judging if an alarm
represents a true oil spill or a false alarm.
10.3 Viewing the Quality Map
The confidence or quality map is available as one of the layers. It can be enabled in the “Layers Dialog”,
accessible from the “Screen Menu”. Its visibility depends on visibility and/or transparency of other layers.
(See the “Screen Menu”, the “Layers Dialog”, and the separate section “User Interface elements” for better
understanding of the conditions under which you can actually see this layer).
10.4 Use
The essence of the confidence or quality map is that it uses a colour scale to represent how likely the internal
algorithms consider each pixel (area of the image) to be an oil-spill.
Figure 43 shows the colour scale that is used, and illustrates that blue indicates a very low probability of that
image element representing an oil spill, and that red indicates a very high probability of that image element
representing an oil spill.
Do note that there are additional criteria in the software to determine the likelihood a high probability area in the
confidence/quality map is an actual oil-spill, such as the length of time it has been present, and the total surface
area it occupies.
low probability high probability

Figure 43: Colour-scale used in the confidence / quality map
Figure 44 to figure 51 show an example of an oil-spill, as seen on the radar image, the enhanced image, and on
the confidence or quality map, and finally how the alarm shows on the enhanced image. Side-by-side, both the
complete image and a zoomed- in quadrant are shown, in order to see more detail.
The area indicated in red shows where the algorithms have calculated a high probability of that area being an oil-
slick. This can be recognized in the other images (the raw radar image and the enhanced image). The last image
shows the enhanced image with an alarm in the “candidate” stage (see section “Alarms and Alarm Stages”).
Note that the black circle in the centre of the radar image, and the three black pie areas emanating from the
centre, are blocked areas to avoid false alarms caused by structures on the ship itself. These blocked areas do not
show up on the enhanced image (in the enhanced image you can see how the structures mentioned show up
there). The blocked areas are recognizable in the confidence/quality map image, as uniform darker blue areas,
indicating the low probability that has been assigned to these areas by marking them blocked.
For details on how such structures can cause false alarms, see the section “False Alarms”; for details on how to
use blocked areas, see the section “Blocked Areas”.
Figure 44: An oil spill on the radar image Figure 45: An oil spill on the radar image (zoomed in)

II Background Topics and Concepts 10 Confidence map / quality map
Figure 47: The same oil spill on the enhanced image

Figure 46: The same oil spill on the enhanced image
(zoomed in)
Figure 48: The same oil spill on the confidence/quality Figure 49: The same oil spill on the confidence/quality
map image map image (zoomed in)
Figure 50: The same oil spill as an alarm on the Figure 51: The same oil spill as an alarm on the
enhanced image enhanced image (zoomed in)
Use of the confidence or quality map is not necessary in normal oil spill detection operations. The information in
the confidence or quality map is used internally by the program; the final result is presented to the user through
the on-screen oil spill alarms.

II Background Topics and Concepts 11 False alarms
11 FALSE ALARMS
11.1 What are false alarms

A “False Alarm” occurs when the oil spill detection algorithms make a mistake, and flag something as a spill
that isn’t.
11.2 Why do false alarms happen ?

The reason these false alarms occur is that the algorithms look for certain tell-tale signs of oil spills, that can also
be the sign of some other situation. As the separate section “Backgrounds” mentions, an oil slick suppresses
small surface waves, which in turn results in a localized decrease in the radar echo. This shows in the radar
image (and in particular in the enhanced, processed image) as a dark patch. These dark patches is what the
software looks for. But a dark patch in the image can have other causes than an oil slick: there could be less
small surface waves for other reasons (e.g., a perhaps localized lack of wind), and the radar echo may even be
weak because there is less radar energy locally to begin with (because the radar energy is blocked by a structure
closer to the radar antenna).
11.3 How to deal with false alarms

Some causes of false alarms occur frequently enough that extra algorithms were added to the SeaDarQ 3
software to counter their effect. An example is the radar shadow behind a ship: the “Shadow Detector”
recognizes this kind of situation, and marks off an area behind it so the oil spill detection algorithms exclude that
area from processing.
Unfortunately, not all false alarm situations can be detected automatically by special algorithms, in part because
not all occurrences of false alarms can be explained easily, let alone be recognized. Other false alarm situations
are easily recognizable by humans, especially with some training and experience, but are difficult to codify in a
computer algorithm. There are even false alarm situations that can be codified into computer algorithms, but that
have not made it to the top of the list of tasks for the SeaDarQ software engineers yet.
The fact that not all false alarms can be recognized automatically in the software has two consequences:
• Alarms signal a potential oil spill – confirmation that it should be considered a real oil spill has to be
done by the user/operator
• This in turn means the user/operator needs to be able to recognize false alarm situations
To aid in recognizing false alarms, the following section shows a number of examples.

Radar shadows
Figure 52 through figure 57 show the same example as was used in the section “Confidence map/Quality map”,
but without the blocked areas. The dark areas emanating from the center are radar shadows, caused by structures
on the ship itself. These structures immediately reflect almost all of the radar energy, leaving almost no radar
energy for the region behind them – hence the dark regions. In the zoomed-in images there is evidence of some
disturbances to the regular radar signal very close to the ship, including this high radar echo.
Without further measures, the SeaDarQ Oil Spill Detection algorithms cannot distinguish these persistent dark
regions from oil spills, and as the last images in figure 56 and figure 57 show, the algorithms do indeed trigger
alarms on these regions, which must be classed as false.

Figure 52: Radar shadow from structures on the ship Figure 53: Radar shadow from structures on the ship
(radar image) (radar image, detail)
(enhanced image) (enhanced image, detail)
(false alarm) (false alarm, detail)

The structures that cause these radar shadows are in a fixed position with respect to the ship. The SeaDarQ
facility “Blocked areas” is included especially to deal with these kind of shadows. In the example, constructing
three pie areas to cover the long stretched radar shadows, and a small circle to block the disturbing signals close
to the ship, effectively tell the Oil Spill Detection algorithms to ignore and not trigger any alarms based on these
areas. Note that these areas move along with the ship.
Figure 58 (previously shown in the section “Confidence map/Quality map”) shows blocked areas that could be
constructed for this case, as they would appear on the raw radar image, and figure 59 shows that now the oil spill
that is present in the area does trigger an alarm, and the radar shadows caused by the ship’s structures still show
up on the enhanced image, but no longer trigger false alarms.
For further details on the construction, use, and especially saving for future re-use of blocked areas, see the
section “Blocked Areas”.
Figure 59: Radar shadow from structures on the ship

Figure 58: Radar shadow from structures on the ship
countered by blocked areas (enhanced image, no false
countered by blocked areas (radar image)
alarms)
Other ship
Similar to how structures like the mast on the ship itself can cause radar shadows that can result in false alarms,
other ships in the vicinity can also cause radar shadows that can result in false alarms. Figure 60 to figure 67
show an example
Again, the nearby ship causes such an hard radar-echo that there is barely any energy left in the radar signal for
the area behind this nearby ship, resulting in a dark area that the Oil Spill Detection algorithms can mistake for
an oil spill, triggering a (false) alarm.
The dark radar shadow is more clearly visible in the enhanced image, and the Oil Spill Detection algorithms
mistaking the area for an oil spill and assigning it a high confidence level, can be seen by the red colour of the
area in the pictures of the confidence or quality map. Finally, figure 66 and figure 67 show that this indeed
results in the triggering of an alarm.

Figure 60: Radar shadow behind nearby ships (radar Figure 61: Radar shadow behind a nearby ship (radar
image) image, detail)
Figure 62: Radar shadow behind nearby ships Figure 63: Radar shadow behind a nearby ship
(confidence/quality map) (confidence/quality map, detail)

(enhanced image with false alarm) (enhanced image with false alarm, detail)
SeaDarQ 3 has an extra, specialized set of algorithms that can recognize this kind of situation, called the shadow
detector. Simply having the shadow detector enabled (for details see the section “Shadow Detector”, and the
“Configuration Settings Dialog”, tab “Shadow Detector”), results in the radar shadow being blocked (by a
automatically, dynamically adjusting blocked area), as shown in the raw radar image of figure 68 and figure 69.
The enhanced image is no different from the situation without the shadow detector, except that this time no
alarms get triggered for this area. This is illustrated by the dark blue, low confidence assignation to the area in
the confidence / quality map, shown in figure 72 and figure 73.
Figure 68: The shadow detector blocks off the radar Figure 69: The shadow detector blocks off the radar
shadow behind nearby ships (radar image) shadow behind nearby ships (radar image, detail)

Figure 70: Because the shadow detector blocks off Figure 71: Because the shadow detector blocks off
radar shadow behind nearby ships, they do not cause radar shadow behind nearby ships, they do not cause
false alarms (enhanced image) false alarms (enhanced image, detail)
Figure 72: Effect of the shadow detector on the Figure 73: Effect of the shadow detector on the
confidence/quality map (dark blue areas) confidence/quality map (dark blue area, detail)
Island or coastal feature
Figure 74 shows a situation with a number of small islands not very far from the ship equipped with the
SeaDarQ system. Similar as with structures on the ship itself, or other ships in the vicinity, an island can block
the radar energy from reaching an area behind it, resulting in a dark patch that can trigger the oil spill detection
algorithms into issuing a false alarm.

Figure 74: Nearby islands cause radar shadows behind them (overall enhanced image, and detailed views)
The images in figure 75 show a number of alarms, most of which are false because they are caused by a radar
shadow behind one or another of the islands.
Figure 75: Radar shadows behind nearby islands cause false alarms (enhanced image, overall and detail)
There are two features in SeaDarQ 3 that can prevent false alarms of this kind, caused by islands. One is the
Coastline Database, the other the Shadow Detector.
As described in a bit more detail in the section “Coastline database and land-mask”, SeaDarQ 3 uses a database
with worldwide geographic information on coastlines. The images above show these coastlines, where the
landmass is coloured a darker green. Close inspection of the images (or the extra zoomed in one in figure 75)
show that some, but not all, of the islands in the area are included in this database.
The islands being in the database does nothing yet about the radar shadows behind them. For this, the extra
option “extend radar line as land” needs to be used. This option is present in the tab “Coast Line Settings” of the
dialog window “Configuration Settings”, as “When radar line hits land, mark the rest of the radar line as land”.
Figure 76 shows the effect of this option on the overall radar image: it is very similar to the “blocked area” and
“shadow detector” features, but linked to the stationary geographical features (the blocked areas do move as the
ship moves, as they are linked to the radar lines).

Figure 77: Effect of both the coast-line database with

Figure 76: Effect of coast-line database with land-
land-extension feature and the shadow detector on the
extension feature on the radar image
radar image
As mentioned, as small number of very small islands are not covered by the coastline database (and in practice
the ones that are might be slightly misaligned). To handle those as well, the other SeaDarQ feature mentioned
can be used, the Shadow Detector. Figure 77 shows the radar image with both the coastline database land
extension feature and the shadow detector switched on. (Note that with a live system, the areas blocked off by
the shadow detector can vary from radar revolution to radar revolution.)
Figure 78 and figure 79 show the result of switching on all these features: the false alarms from the islands have
disappeared. There is still a circular false alarm close to the ship (which should be handled with a small blocked
area there), and an alarm close to the wake of the ship (in the 010° direction). This latter one is probably due to
some structure on the ship itself: its edges are too vague for it to be a real oil spill, and its direction is totally
inconsistent with the spill to the west of the ship. This false alarm, too, could be handled with a blocked area.
Figure 78: Coastline database with land-extension feature combined with shadow detector avert false alarms
caused by radar shadows (radar image, enhanced image with alarms, enhanced image detail)
Figure 79: Enhanced image and enhanced image with alarms: the alarm in the centre of these images correctly
identfies an oil spill; the two smaller alarms are false alarms (see text for details)

Behind the crests of ocean waves
Ocean waves can be large enough that their crests shield off their troughs from the radar energy. Figure 80
shows an example, where the range correction is switched off to make the effect more clearly visible. Some of
the troughs are actually darker than the oil spill that is present in the 035° direction from the ship.
Figure 80: Crests and troughs of ocean waves show up Figure 81: Crests and troughs of ocean waves are
on the raw radar image (WNW and ESE parts of the averaged out in the enhanced image; range correction
image) makes the intensity in the image uniform
Even in SeaDarQ 2 this effect was easily countered, by averaging the raw radar image over a number of radar
revolutions, resulting in the so-called enhanced image. The ocean waves travel enough of a distance over this
time-period, that their crests and troughs are averaged out and pretty much disappear in the enhanced image. An
oil slick does not move a significant distance in this time, and thus does not get averaged away, but instead
appears more pronounced. The effects of the averaging becomes even better if the normal automatic range
correction is not switched off. The result is shown in figure 81, showing the enhanced image.
This averaging out of waves (and other small and relatively fast-moving objects visible in the raw radar image)
is the reason that in normal operational oil-spill detection use, SeaDarQ should have the radar image hidden, and
the enhanced image as the one being viewed.
Wind shadow
Behind another ship, an island, or at the coast
Figure 82 through to figure 87 show a situation where the direction from which the wind is blowing is such that
in the lee of the coast there is significantly less wind. This results in an area of lower radar background intensity,
as there are less of the wind-generated disturbances that cause this background radar intensity level. The effect is
a darker area, vaguely noticeable in the raw radar image, but more clearly visible in the enhanced image and
even more so in the confidence or quality map. In some cases this will lead to false alarms.

Figure 82: Wind shadow in the lee of the coast

Figure 83: Wind shadow in the lee of the coast (radar
(radar image; NNE part of the image, wind from
image, detail)
ENE)
Figure 84: Wind shadow in the lee of the coast Figure 85: Wind shadow in the lee of the coast

(confidence/quality map, detail). The high-confidence
(confidence/quality map)
areas (red, yellow) could lead to false alarms.
At present, SeaDarQ cannot detect, or cope with this situation. It is up to the operator to recognize the situation,
taking into account the prevailing wind.
Note that the example shows a wind-shadow in the lee of a largish land-mass, but the same circumstances can be
applicable to an island, or even another ship.

Ship’s Wake
The turbulence generated by the propulsion of a ship may disturb the sea surface, and influence the radar return
in the wake of the ship. This can result in an increased reflection, a decreased reflection, or both,
Figure 88 shows an example of the wake of the ship equipped with the SeaDarQ installation. In this case, the
wake is barely distinguishable in the radar image, even when zoomed in (figure 89), but does become visible in
the enhanced image (figure 90 and figure 91), and even more so in the confidence or quality map image (figure
92 and figure 93). Naturally, the wake is in the opposite direction of the ship’s movement, which is indicated by
the blue line.
Figure 88: Wake behind the ship vaguely visible Figure 89: Wake behind the ship vaguely visible
(opposite the blue heading line; radar image) (radar image, detail)
Figure 91: Wake behind the ship vaguely visible: the

Figure 90: Wake behind the ship vaguely visible
somewhat blocky dark- and light-grey stripe
(opposite the blue heading line; enhanced image)
(enhanced image, detail)

Figure 92: Wake behind the ship (confidence/quality Figure 93: Wake behind the ship (confidence/quality
map) map, detail)
Although in this case the wake is identifiable in the confidence or quality map, the level of confidence is not high
enough to cause a false alarm. If the wake does cause false alarms, this can be countered easily by constructing
an extra blocked area to block off the wake.
Rain
As mentioned in the section “Background Correction / Range Correction”, rain shows up in the radar image as a
bright, moving object (see figure 94, figure 95 and figure 96). It can disturb the oil spill detection algorithms by
changing the overall radar background intensity level.
Rain will also block the radar energy so that it does not penetrate through high intensity rain. The result is lower
radar backscatter intensity behind the rain.
Passing rain showers can often have regions of reduced winds and consequently a reduced radar backscatter
signal. This way, rain can lead to a false alarm.
Figure 95: Rain visible in the Figure 96: Rain visible in the
Figure 94: Rain visible in the raw
enhanced image (detail; bright confidence/quality map (detail;
radar image (detail)
areas) blue areas)
In SeaDarQ 3, this will usually not pose a problem with range correction set to normal, automatic mode. For
extreme cases, the range correction can be set to the special “rain mode”, but so far this seems necessary only
rarely.

II Background Topics and Concepts 12 Blocked areas
12 BLOCKED AREAS
12.1 Introduction
Sometimes, the radar image shows artefacts that interfere with the Oil Spill Detection algorithms. Examples are
the radar-shadow of a fixed structure (e.g., a nearby oilrig), or even the radar-shadow of parts of the structure (or
ship) where the radar is mounted. Figure 97 and figure 98 show examples.
Figure 97: Radar shadows and blanked area at an oil-

Figure 98: Radar shadows from structures on a ship
rig
The interference of such artefacts can be two-fold:

• they can cause false alarms (the algorithms may mark them as an oil spill, as their radar signature may
have similar features as an oil spill in the eyes of these algorithms)
• they can influence the automatic range correction in a counterproductive way (see the section
“Background correction / Range correction” for details of the automatic range correction)
To counter this unwanted influence, SeaDarQ has the option to create “blocked areas” where the algorithms do
not process the radar signal for oil spill detection, range correction, or both.
12.2 Creation of a blocked area

To create a new blocked area:
1. Select Configuration Setup…,
2. and then the tab “Blocked Areas”; see figure 99.
3. In the “Blocked Areas” tab, click the check-box next to “Allow Edit” (if it isn’t checked yet). This will
enable the other items on this tab; see figure 100
4. You can now create up to 6 blocked areas. A blocked area becomes “active” when you select “Circle”,
“Pie”, or “Ring”, instead of “None” in the column “Type”, and then click the “Apply” button.
5. The next paragraphs describe manipulation of the area and changing its properties

Figure 99: Configuration settings dialog window, Figure 100: Configuration settings dialog window,
blocked areas tab (allow edit box not ticked) blocked areas tab (allow edit box ticked)
12.3 Resizing and reshaping a blocked area

There are two ways of resizing and reshaping a blocked area, once it is “active” on the radar image:
• by editing its properties on the “Blocked Areas” tab
• by interactive manipulation of its outline on the radar image
The following table (table 7) lists the type of editing or manipulation, and how to accomplish it either by direct
property editing, or by interactive manipulation (if possible)
aspect to direct property editing on the “Blocked interactive manipulation

change: Areas” tab
de-activation select “None” from the drop-down list in hover the mouse near one of the edges of the
column “Type” shape, and when that edge is highlighted,
right-click; from the pop-up menu, select
“None”
basic shape from the drop-down list in column “Type”, hover the mouse near one of the edges of the
select the desired shape (one of “Circle”, shape, and when that edge is highlighted,
“Pie”, or “Ring”) right-click; from the pop-up menu, select the
desired shape (one of “Circle”, “Pie”, or
“Ring”)
edge location the edit-boxes in the columns “Start Range”, hover the mouse near one of the edges of the
“End Range”, “Start Angle”, and “End shape, and when that edge is highlighted,
Angle” allow you to specify the position of drag it to the desired position
these edges directly (1) (2)
blocking type in the column “Block Type”, select the — ( 4)
desired type of blocking from the drop-down
list (the options are “All”, “Range
Correction”, or “Processing” (3)
Table 7: How to accomplish various editing operations on blocked areas
Notes:
(1) as applicable to the selected basic shape type
(2) see below for some further description of the properties in these four columns
(3) see the next paragraph for a description of the effect of the different options for the blocking type
(4) this cannot be done interactively, you’ll have to re-open the “Blocked Areas” tab via the Configuration
Setup… menu, and change the blocking type in the “Block Type” column, for the area you want to
change
The next table (table 8) lists the meaning of the properties in the columns “Start Range”, “End Range”, “Start
Angle”, and “End Angle”

shape start range end range start angle end angle comments
(in meters, radially from the radat)
circle not applicable radius of the not applicable not applicable circles are always
circle centred around the radar
ring inner radius outer radius not applicable not applicable ditto for rings
pie inner radius outer radius the edges of the pie-segment
(the angles are relative to the
heading (ship’s direction/bearing))
Table 8: Properties of blocked areas on the tab "Blocked Areas" in the Configuration Settings dialog
Note that all circle-segments have the radar location as their centre.
12.4 Options for the type of blocked area and their effect
As described in the previous paragraph, there are three options for the type of blocking to use for a blocked area.
These are:
processing Exclude the area from processing by the oil spill detection algorithms – neither artefacts
nor real spills within this area will trigger an alarm. The automatic range correction
algorithm will use the radar signal returns from within the area.
Select this option for small circles at the centre of the image, and for regions that are
small.
range correction Exclude the area from the automatic range correction algorithm. The oil spill detection
algorithms will process the area, so these algorithms can trigger alarms within this area.
Don not use this option, it is a residual of algorithm calibration during software
development.
all Combination of the effects of the settings “processing” and “range correction”, as
described above – the oil spill detection algorithms will not process the radar signal
returns from within the area, and the range correction algorithm will not use the radar
signal returns from within the area, either.
Select this option for large regions, in particular for land not detected by the coastline
database or for regions where the radar doesn’t transmit (radar blanking areas).
The last subsection of this section gives some examples and further guidance on what option to use in what sort
of circumstances.
12.5 Hiding blocked areas

If you leave the check-box “Allow Edit” checked, the blocked areas show up on the radar image in distinct
colours, and remain editable. You can hide the blocked areas (and preclude further editing) by un-checking
“Allow Edit”.
12.6 Saving blocked areas
In order to save blocked areas (so they can be used again should SeaDarQ be restarted), save the XML
configuration: menu Configuration Save XML Configuration. You will have to specify a file-name.
Do note that “Save XML Configuration” not only saves the blocked areas, but a collection of other settings, too.
See section II4.4 “Save configuration” in section II, “Background Topics and Concepts”, for details.
Also note: these configuration settings, including blocked areas, are specific to SeaDarQ’s processing mode.
Changing to another processing mode (from “Configuration Oil Spill Detection from Radar” to any other
mode) will result in the discarding of any and all blocked areas. You may have to reload saved blocked areas
when changing back to “Oil Spill Detection from Radar” mode. Changes of blocked areas (including creation of
new ones) that you didn’t save explicitly, will be lost.
12.7 (Re-) loading previously saved blocked areas

You can reload blocked areas that were previously saved in an XML configuration file by loading said file via the
menu Configuration Load XML Configuration.
Do note that “Load XML Configuration” not only loads the blocked areas, but a collection of other settings, too.

12.8 Some properties of blocked areas

Internally, SeaDarQ saves blocked areas in coordinates relative to the ship, so they remain fixed with respect to
the ship, irrespective of the SeaDarQ setting for the range
12.9 What type and shape of area to use for selected examples
Use::
• a circle for obstructions close to the radar installation (tower / rig / ship)
• a pie segment for isolated obstructions further away
• a ring in case an isolated obstruction gives multiple echoes at the same range, e.g. due to strong side-lobes
in the transmitted radar signal
Figure 101: Structures on the ship cause radar Figure 102: Structures on the ship cause radar
shadows (radar image) shadows (radar image, detail)
Figure 104: Radar shadows caused by structures on

Figure 103: Radar shadows caused by structures on
the ship itself cause false alarms (enhanced image,
the ship itself cause false alarms (enhanced image)
detail)

Figure 105: Blocked areas constructed to prevent Figure 106: Blocked areas constructed to prevent
radar shadows from structures on the ship from radar shadows from structures on the ship from
causing false alarms (radar image) causing false alarms (radar image, detail)

II Background Topics and Concepts 13 Shadow detector
13 SHADOW DETECTOR
13.1 Description
The “Shadow Detector” is a feature in the SeaDarQ 3 software that recognizes situations where a high-radar-
reflection object (e.g., a ship) blocks the radar-energy, resulting in a dark area behind the object (as seen from the
radar antenna): a so-called radar shadow.
13.2 Purpose
The dark areas in the radar image that represent these radar shadows may trigger the automatic oil spill detection
algorithms into raising an alarm, which will be a false alarm. To bring down the number of false alarms, the
shadow detection algorithms mark off these radar shadows in a way that prevents the oil spill detection
algorithms from triggering an alarm.
13.3 Enabling the Shadow Detector
The Shadow Detector is switched on by default in SeaDarQ 3. Switching it on or off is done in the Configuration
Settings dialog window, on the tab `Shadow Detector`. The Configuration Settings dialog window is accessed
through the menu “Configuration”. (See the relevant sections elsewhere in this reference guide for details.)
13.4 Use
Switch the feature on as described above.
13.5 Practical example
The areas that are blocked off by the Shadow Detector show as narrow black pie segments in the raw radar
image, and as dark blue (low probability) pie segments in the Confidence / Quality map. These blocked off areas
do not show in the enhanced image (which is the default image to use for oil spill detection operation).
The examples below show the situation with the Shadow Detector off on the left, and with the Shadow Detector
on the right. In sequence, they show the raw radar image, the enhanced image (including alarms), and the
confidence/quality map. More detail is shown in the zoomed-in images, which follow the same pattern.
Figure 108: Radar shadows behind nearby ships

dynamically blocked off by the shadow detector (radar
(radar image)
image)

Figure 110: Shadow detector prevents false alarms

Figure 109: False alarms caused by radar shadows
from radar shadows behind nearby ships (enhanced
behind nearby ships (enhanced image)
image)
Figure 111: High values (yellow, red) in the Figure 112: Shadow detector suppresses high values
confidence/quality map caused by radar shadows in the confidence/quality map caused by radar
behind nearby ships shadows behind nearby ships

dynamically blocked off by the shadow detector (radar
(radar image, detail)
image, detail)

Figure 116: Shadow detector prevents false alarms

Figure 115: False alarms caused by radar shadows
from radar shadows behind nearby ships (enhanced
behind nearby ships (enhanced image, detail)
image, detail)
Figure 117: High values (yellow, red) in the Figure 118: Shadow detector suppresses high values
confidence/quality map caused by radar shadows in the confidence/quality map caused by radar
behind nearby ships (detail) shadows behind nearby ships (detail)

II Background Topics and Concepts 14 Coastline database and land-mask
14 COASTLINE DATABASE AND LAND-MASK

14.1 Description
The Coastline Database is a repository of geographic information about coastlines, spanning the world. The
SeaDarQ 3 software uses this database to mark off (mask) any land that might be visible in the radar image, as
the behaviour of waves impinging on the coast often leads to artefacts in the radar image that confuse the oil spill
detection algorithms. In addition, islands and peninsulas can cause radar shadows behind them, potentially
leading to false alarms. To cope with such situations, the coastline database and land mask algorithms can mask
off any radar-lines that hit the coast from the point where they hit the coast, discarding any artefacts that might
lie behind that could confuse the software.
14.2 Purpose
Especially for radar shadows related to the coast: islands, peninsulas, and so on (see also above).
Using the coastline database and land-mask, block these off and prevent their disruptive influence.
14.3 The Coastline database in SeaDarQ
The Coastline Database is factory-installed with SeaDarQ 3; its location is specified on the tab “Coast Line
Server” in the “Configuration Settings” dialog window.
Settings for the Land Mask and the behaviour when a radar line hits land are specified on the tab “CoastLine
Settings”, also part of the “Configuration Settings” dialog window.

II Background Topics and Concepts 15 AIS
15 AIS
15.1 Description
AIS is the Automatic Identification System, by which ships transmit information about their identity, location,
course, and speed (amongst others). SeaDarQ can display some of this information on the radar image, provided
an AIS receiver (aka base station) is connected to one of the NMEA input ports on the SeaDarQ RNI.
15.2 Purpose
The primary purpose is to identify other ships that are in the field of view. It can for instance be useful to know
which ships are participating in oil spill recovery operations and which ones are marine traffic.
15.3 AIS display options
If an AIS receiver with NMEA output is installed, it can be connected to the SeaDarQ system via one of the
NMEA input ports on the SeaDarQ RNI.
The level of detail that is shown about each ship transmitting AIS information, depends on the settings in the
AIS menu, and on the visibility setting of the AIS layer:
• If the AIS layer is visible (or transparent), each ship transmitting AIS information is visible as a blue
dot
If the mouse is hovered over one of these ships, the AIS label of that ship is shown in red, and if tracks
are shown, its track is indicated as a series of red dots
• If “Show Labels” is enabled in the AIS menu, the AIS labels for all ships are shown continuously in
blue
• If “Show Tracks” is enabled in the AIS menu, the track of each ship is shown as smaller dots.
15.4 Use
Have the AIS layer visible and transparent; whether or not to enable tracks and labels depends on how much ship
traffic there is. If there are a lot of ships nearby, switch of the label display, but maybe leave the tracks enabled.
If the tracks clutter and confuse the display too much, switch these off, too.
To identify a ship, hover over the blue dot indicating its position.
To view a ship’s track, select to show tracks, and hover over the blue dot indicating the ship’s position to have its
label and track both highlighted in red.
Figure 119 to figure 124 show some examples of the various options there are for AIS information display.
Figure 119 shows the enhanced image without any AIS information (the AIS layer is switched off).
Figure 120 has the AIS layer visible, and both options to show labels and tracks enabled. There are many ships
nearby, and the display is quite cluttered.
Figure 119: AIS layer hidden Figure 120: AIS labels and tracks both enabled

II Background Topics and Concepts 15 AIS
Figure 121 has the AIS layer visible, but the menu options to show labels and tracks are both turned off. In this
situation, the positions of the ships as transmitted via AIS is indicated by blue dots. If you hover the mouse over
one of these dots, the ship’s identifying information, as transmitted via AIS, is shown highlighted in a red label,
similar as in figure 122 (except that in figure 122 the tracks are shown).
Figure 122: AIS tracks enabled, labels disabled, but

Figure 121: AIS layer visible, both labels and tracks
the label shows highlighted in red when the mouse
not enabled
hovers over a (stationary) ship
Figure 123, similar to figure 122, has tracks enabled and labels disabled. Figure 124 shows how both the label
and the track are highlighted in red when the mouse is hovered over a moving ship.
Figure 124: AIS tracks enabled, labels disabled, but

Figure 123: AIS tracks enabled, labels not enabled label and track show (highlighted in red) when the
mouse hovers over a (moving) ship

II Background Topics and Concepts 16 Line- and histogram windows
16 LINE- AND HISTOGRAM WINDOWS

See description under “Line Window” and “Histogram Window” in the section “Dialogs”
Also refer back to “Background correction / range correction” earlier in this section “Background Topics and
Concepts”.
Line window / range curve

16.1 Description
The Line Window shows a curve of the intensity of the returned radar signal (the radar echo) as a function of the
distance to the radar antenna, and allows selection of a number of pre-defined range correction curves or manual
editing of a range correction curve.
16.2 Purpose
The intensity of the radar echo drops off with distance, which can make it difficult to distinguish the diminished
radar echo caused by an oil slick from the background. The range correction curve that is available in the Line
Window makes it possible to have a background intensity that is corrected for this drop-off with distance,
resulting in a uniform background intensity. This makes oil slicks at greater distances easier to distinguish.
16.3 Accessing the Line Window
The Line Window can be opened via the menu-item “Line Window” in the “View” menu, or by clicking the
toolbar button “Line Window”.
16.4 Use
The use of the Line Window, in particular the range curve, is mentioned in the section “Background Correction /
Range Correction”, and described in detail (the “mechanics”, so to speak) in the sub-section “Line Window” in
the section “Dialogs”.
Histogram window:
16.5 Description
The Histogram Window shows how often each (radar echo) intensity occurs over the entire radar-image, by
means of a histogram (i.e., the relative number of pixels in the image of each intensity).
16.6 Purpose
The histogram window is still present in the software, but this is for historical reasons mostly;
manipulation of the histogram effects the display, but it does not affect the detection algorithms.
16.7 Accessing the Histogram Window
The Histogram Window can be opened via the menu-item “Histogram Window” in the “View” menu, or by
clicking the toolbar button “Histogram View”.
16.8 Use
The use of the Histogram Window (the “mechanics”, so to speak) is described in the sub-section “Histogram
Window” in the section “Dialogs”.

II Background Topics and Concepts 17 Using polygons
17 USING POLYGONS
17.1 Purpose
Polygons were a tool in SeaDarQ v 2.x to assist in estimating the extent and volume of a (potential) oil-spill. In
SeaDarQ v 3.x, this tool is still available, although a large part of its functionality is now also covered by the
information displayed in the “Oi Spills Detected” panel.
One important use of polygons was estimating the size (surface-area) and volume of an oil spill. To this end,
SeaDarQ calculates the surface area of each polygon (in corresponding real-world units, either km2 or nm2).
Combined with an estimate for the oil slick layer thickness (default 0.1 mm, but this can be adjusted by the
operator), SeaDarQ also calculates the volume (in m3).
In SeaDarQ v. 3.x, the surface area of automatically detected (potential) oil spills is also calculated (and
continuously re-calculated as the detected area changes over time), but not the volume.
Polygons can also be used to communicate the location and extent of a detected oil spill (or other feature), as the
user-specified polygons can be saved to file, in terms of the geographic location of the control points. Such a file
could be transferred, e.g., to other Oil Spill Response Vessels, to communicate location and extent.
Polygons and lines can also be used to aid in determining changes to an observed feature, in terms of location
and extent. A feature of interest could be marked out by a bounding polygon; if the feature moves very slowly
over time, comparison to the geographically stationary polygon or line can make this movement better visible.
Note that “line” in the current context means a multi-segmented line.
17.2 Practical use
Creation
Create a new polygon by either selecting “Add Polygon” from the Polygon menu, or by clicking the New
Polygon button on the toolbar. The new polygon will have three control points, and will have its lower edge
centered on the origin (i.e., the radar location).
Create a new line by either selecting “Add Line” from the Polygon menu, or by clicking the New Line button on
the toolbar. The new line will have two control points, and will be centered on the origin (i.e., the radar
location).
Editing / Manipulation
The control-points of a polygon or line are indicated by yellow dots. They become editable by hovering the
mouse close enough to them. Editability means you can click-and-drag the selected point to another position, or
you can delete it by right-clicking it (it will disappear without further warning or question, and there is no undo-
function). The selected control-point (i.e., the control-point that the mouse is closest to) will be displayed in red.
By removing control-points, you cannot remove the polygon or line itself; right-clicking on a control-point of a
polygon that has only three control-points, or of a line with only two control-points, has no effect.
You can add a control-point by clicking the mouse close to or on a line-segment of a line or polygon. The cursor
will have a red dot added to it to indicate that it will add a control-point if clicked, and the polygon or line that
the control-point will be added to will become semi-transparent. If you click some way off a line-segment while
the cursor still has a red dot attached to it, the new control-point will be added at the location of the cursor, and
the new line-segments will jump to be connected to it. If you click-and-drag while the cursor has a red dot
attached, you can drag the new control-point to a desired position immediately. If you click close to a line-
segment, but not close enough (without the cursor having a red dot attached, and without the polygon or line
becoming semi-transparent) you will execute the zoom function instead of adding a control-point, if the cursor is
outside the polygon. If you move the mouse inside a polygon, the polygon will turn semi-transparent. If you
click-and-drag inside a polygon while the cursor is too far away from an edge to add a control-point, you will
move the entire polygon. You cannot move a line this way.
Properties
A line will constantly be labeled with the distance (in km or nm, depending on the setting in the View menu)
between each pair of consecutive points.
A polygon will constantly be labeled with the enclosed area (in km2 or nm2, depending on the setting in the View
menu), and with the volume in m3. The volume is calculated using the thickness (in mm) of the polygon. A new
polygon is created with a default thickness of 0.1 mm, whatever the setting in the Polygon Settings dialog
window.

You can change the thickness for all polygons in the image by using the Polygon Settings dialog window,
through a right-click on the Polygon menu and changing the value there. Note that this will only change the
thickness for all polygons present at that time; new polygons will still be created with the default thickness of 0.1
mm.
You can change the thickness of an individual polygon by right-clicking it, and selecting “Settings…” from the
pop-up menu that will appear. The Polygon Settings dialog window that will appear is identical to the one that
shows after a right-click of the Polygon menu, except:
• It only applies to the polygon it was popped-up from
• It does not have the “Font” tab
Note that a subsequent change of the “general” thickness through the general Polygon Settings dialog window
(via right-clicking the Polygon menu) will override any previously set individual layer thicknesses.
Saving and loading

You can save all polygons and lines currently defined via the menu item “Save to File …” in the Polygon menu,
or via the “Save Polygons” button in the toolbar. The coordinates of the polygon- and line- control-points will be
saved in terms of degrees latitude and longitude (regardless of the setting for degrees or UTM in the View
menu).
You can reload previously saved polygons and lines via the menu item “Load from File …” in the Polygon menu
or via the “Load polygons” button in the toolbar.
Some notes:
• any assigned thickness of polygons, be it individual or general, will not be saved, and hence will not be
restored. Polygons loaded from file will have the default thickness of 0.1 mm again.
• control-points of a polygon or line are geographic positions: they do not move with the ship. This also
means that they may lay outside the visible image if they are (re-) loaded from file.
• Loading polygons and/or lines from file removes any and all currently defined polygons and/or lines
Deletion of a single polygon or line

If you right-click on or close enough to a line or polygon so that it is selected (recognizable by it becoming semi-
tranparent) – but not so close to a control-point that you delete the control-point instead – a pop-up menu will
appear. For a line, the only entry in the menu will be “Remove line”; for a polygon, “Remove Polygon” will be
the first entry in the pop-up menu. Selecting the Remove … item will result in the relevant line or polygon being
deleted.
Deletion of all polygons and/or lines

You can delete all polygons and/or lines in the image by selecting the menu item “Remove all” in the Polygon
menu, or by clicking the Remove button in the toolbar.
Summary
The following table summarizes the instructions given above.
what how remarks
create polygon menu Polygon ► Add Polygon lower edge centered on

toolbar, button Add Polygon the origin
create line menu Polygon ► Add Line centered on the origin

toolbar, button Add Line
move polygon move mouse inside polygon (but away from edges)
and click-and-drag to new position
move line only by moving the individual control-points

delete one polygon right-click inside the polygon (but away from
control-points) and select “Remove Polygon” from
the pop-up menu
delete one line right-click on a segment of the line (but away from
control-points) and select “Remove Line” from the
pop-up menu

what how remarks
delete all polygons and menu Polygon ► Remove All

lines toolbar, button Remove Polygons
add a control point position the mouse over an edge of a polygon or a click and miss will execute
line-segment of a line until a red dot is attached to the zoom-in
cursor, and click for a new control-point at that
location, or click-and-drag to create a new control-
point at the location where the mouse is released
move a control point move the mouse close to or over a control point until
its color changes from yellow to red, then click-and-
drag the control-point to its desired new location
delete a control point right-click on or close to a control-point instant, without undo
change layer thickness for right-click inside the polygon (but away from
one polygon control-points) and select “Settings …” from the pop-
up menu; change the layer thickness in the “Polygon
Settings” dialog window that appears
change layer thickness for right-click the “Polygon” menu, and change the layer
all polygons thickness in the “Polygon Settings” dialog window
that appears
save all polygons and lines menu Polygon ► Save to File … does not save layer
to file toolbar, button Save Polygons thicknesses
load polygons and lines menu Polygon ► Load from File … deletes all current
from file toolbar, button Load Polygons polygons and lines

II Background Topics and Concepts 18 Difference between “snapshot” and “Geo snapshot”
18 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “SNAPSHOT” AND “GEO SNAPSHOT”

SeaDarQ offers two different options to create snapshots of the screen and/or (processed) radar image: “(regular)
snapshots” and “Geo snapshots”. Both result in Geo-encoded TIFF files, so-called GeoTIFF files. The Geo-
encoding means that these files contain additional (machine-readable) information about the geographic location
of the image contained in the file.
The difference between the two lies in the image that is captured:
• regular snapshots capture the screen-image as it appears on-screen, minus the on-screen menus and
controls (it captures the view and layers as they appear)
• Geo snapshots capture the full-screen, zoomed-out processed (enhanced) radar-image regardless of the
current view settings (it captures the enhanced layer, whatever the view settings)
Regular snapshots do reflect settings like zoom and layer visibility, as they are at the moment the snapshot is
taken. They can, e.g., include AIS labels and tracks (even high-lighted, with some skill), or the confidence map
(a.k.a. the Quality map).
Both types of snapshot can be taken automatically, at specified time-intervals. Automatic regular snapshots and
automatic Geo snapshots can run concurrently.
For details of using regular snapshots and Geo snapshots, see the relevant sub-sections in the “Dialogs” and
“Menus” sections.
19 LOADING AND USING A GEO-ENCODED IMAGE

(From OPERATIONAL MANUAL V 2.1)
The Image menu loads a Geotiff encoded image on the image layer. The image is loaded under the radar image
and provides a means to display data from G.I.S. systems or to load a previously taken snapshot as an underlay
to evaluate changes
The layers on top of the image must be transparent or switched to off to make the image visible.
Use the “Load from File” to select the image to be loaded. The system will load the file and checks if the image
contains relevant information. No image is loaded if the image data is outside the radar area.
With the “Remove”, a previously loaded image is removed from the image layer.
Use the ”Alignment” menu to compensate for small misalignment between the radar image and the loaded
image.
The Offset X, Y and Rotation translates and rotates the loaded image so it perfectly matches the radar image.
Note: Snapshots taken with the SeaDarQ system do not have to be translated or rotated.
Geo-encoded image can be used for:

• Is/was comparisons: take a snapshot at a certain time, and load it as an image to compare it to the
current situation
• In case of a static installation (harbour, radar tower): an image of the coast etc. (See the example of
Rotterdam harbour that is provided with the SeaDarQ software)
20 LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE IN DEGREES VERSUS METERS

UTM
SeaDarQ allows two options for the geographic coordinate system: latitude and longitude can be either in
degrees or in meters UTM.
The option to have the latitude and longitude available in meters UTM, too, is there because meters UTM is the
preferred system in disciplines that might use the Hydrography and Wave Processing mode of SeaDarQ.
Matter of preference.
The choice of geographic coordinate system can be made in the menu “View”; see its description in the section
“Menus”.

II Background Topics and Concepts 21 Recording data
21 RECORDING DATA
There are several options in SeaDarQ to document a case by recording data. These options range from taking a
snapshot of the screen to writing the radar video data to a raw recording (which will include the NMEA inputs).
• Single snapshot
• Multiple snapshots at specified intervals
• Geo snapshots
• Recording of raw radar lines (including NMEA signals)
Note: recording the raw data also creates an XML configuration file, using the same filename as the recording
(but with an XML extension). When exchanging recordings, exchanging the XML configuration files alongside
with them will ensure viewing options and other settings (e.g. blocked areas) are the same as when the recording
took place.
It is also possible to create a log-file of the detections made by SeaDarQ. See the description of the “Alarm
Settings dialog”, where this logging can be enabled, a file-name can be specified, and what to log can be
specified.
The log-file is readable text, and contains latitude-longitude information of the points marking out the
detection/alarm area(s).

III Dialogs 1 Overview
III Dialogs
1 OVERVIEW
The following table, table 9, lists important dialog windows that are available and can be encountered in
SeaDarQ v 3.
The column “remarks” mentions how a dialog window can be accessed.
The next sections describe each dialog window, including the different tabs that some of them have.
Note that the standard buttons “OK”, “Cancel”, and “Apply”, are mentioned as standard Windows buttons, and
not explained. Their meaning and intended use is assumed to be obvious.
Dialog box / window name remarks

Layers dialog Right-click Screen menu
Recording dialog —"— Recording —"—
Image Alignment dialog —"— Image —"—
Polygon Settings dialog —"— Polygon —"—
Snapshot settings dialog —"— Snap Shot —"—
Alarms settings dialog —"— Oil Spill Tracker — " —
GeoTIFF Snapshot settings dialog —"— Geo Snap Shot —"—
Radar settings dialog —"— Radar —"—
Font Selection dialog —"— AIS —"—
*): Separate tab for Polygon Settings and Alarms
Settings
File settings dialog —"— File —"—
Line window
Histogram window
(General) Configuration settings dialog Configuration ► Setup …
Table 9: Overview of dialog boxes and windows in the SeaDarQ software

III Dialogs 2 Layers dialog
2 LAYERS DIALOG
Accessing the Layers dialog
The Layers dialog window can be opened in several ways:
• by a right-click on the “Screen” menu
• by selecting the item “Layers …” in the “Screen” menu
• by clicking the “Layers” button in the Button or Tool Bar
Purpose and use

The Layers dialog window allows adjustment of various aspects of the different layers that are used in the main
SeaDarQ image. This includes the possibility of switching individual layers on or off.
The aspects of each layer that can be adjusted are:
• its visibility (whether it is visible at all – but note that layers higher in the stack may obscure lower
layers)
• its transparency (whether lower layers “shine through” or not, and if so, ot what degree)
• the main color used for items in this layer, with separate choices for the color used “during the day” and
the one used “during the night” (where day and night in this case refer to the relevant choice in the
“View” menu)
Details
The list (in figure 125) at the left shows

all layers available in the system, in
order.
Whether a specific layer is visible on

the screen or not, is first of all
determined by the setting for that layer
in the column “Show”. A tick-mark in
that column indicates that the layer is
visible.
The order of the layers means that a

layer higher in this list will obscure a
layer lower in the list, provided both are
marked “Visible”, i.e., “Show”.
A layer marked “Transparent” will
allow lower layers to “shine through”.
The slider for “Alpha”, in the right-most
column, determines the level of
transparency that applies to this layer if
“Transparent” is selected.
By default, each layer has a specific

colour for display during daytime hours,
and a more muted colour for night-time
hours. The drop-down selection boxes
in the columns “Day Color” and “Night
Color” allow the user to select different
colours to their own liking instead.
Display using day- or night-time
Figure 125: Layers dialog window colours is determined by selection of the
appropriate option in the menu “View”:
• The Daytime colours are used when the option “Day” is selected in the “View” menu.
• The Night-time colours are used when the option “Night” is selected in the “View” menu.

Visibility and transparency of a small number of layers can be controlled from the “Layers” panel in the main
screen. These layers are “Chart,” “Image,” “Radar,” “AIS,” and “Enhanced”. Use of the “Layers” panel is
described in the section “User Interface Elements”.
The table below (table 10) lists the layers again, with a short description of each layer, and if relevant, an
indication of where to find additional details.
The table following it (table 11) summarizes the options for each layer (i.e., the columns in the dialog window).
layer name description reference

AIS information from the Automatic Identification
System, provided this information is fed into the
SeaDarQ system via NMEA
POLYGON in this layer polygons can be drawn to assist in
analysing a (potential) oil spill
CURSOR this layer is used to display the cursor
SCALE distance rings (if enabled) and angle markings
(compass rose) around edge of radar image
HEADING heading line, which indicates the direction the ship is chapter “User Interface
traveling in, and CoG (Course-over-Ground) Elements”, section
indicator “Radar Image”
LANDMASS any land within range of the radar will be shown in
this layer (from the geographic information in the
coastline database)
COAST LINE the coastline of any land within range of the radar
will be shown in this layer (from the geographic
information in the coastline database)
DETECTIONS any potential oil spills that the algorithms detect will
be indicated in this layer
RADAR the raw radar image
ENHANCED the enhanced, processed radar image
QUALITY aka the “Confidence map”
IMAGE if an image has been loaded, this is the layer that
contains it
CHART if a chart server provides SeaDarQ with (sea) charts,
this is the layer that contains the chart for the current
location
BACKGROUND allows changing the background colour, e.g. to white
before printing via printscreen
Table 10: List of layers and their use

option / column description reference

Layer The name of the layer
Show Visibility of the layer
Transparent Whether the layer is transparent or not
Day color The color to use for the items in this layer, when menu “View”
“Day-time colors” are active
The drop-down selection box leads to a standard
Windows color selection dialog, allowing another
color to be chosen
Night color The color to use for the items in this layer, when menu “View”
“Night-time colors” are active
The drop-down selection box leads to a standard
Windows color selection dialog, allowing another
color to be chosen
Alpha The level of transparency that applies to this layer, if
the corresponding checkbox in column “Transparent”
is ticked. The sliders allow adjustment of the
transparency for each layer.
Moving the slider to the left increases the
transparency (i.e., allows more of lower lying layers
to shine through), moving the slider to the right
decreases the transparency (i.e., allows less of lower
lying layers to shine through).
By default, the slider is in the middle, corresponding
to a transparency of 50%.
Table 11: Options for each layer, as available in the layers dialog window

III Dialogs 3 Recording dialog
3 RECORDING DIALOG
Accessing the Recording dialog
The Recording dialog window can only be opened by a right-click of the “Recording” menu.
Purpose and use

The recording dialog window contains the settings for the raw radar recordings that SeaDarQ can make. It has 2
tabs. The “Recording” tab allows for the specification of the file the recording should be saved in. The tab
“Conditions” allows for specification of when the recording or recordings should start.
Recording stores the unprocessed radar lines on disk, with the addition of the NMEA data that is fed into the
SeaDarQ system (typically data from the ship’s navigation instruments and the received AIS data from ships
nearby). The system supports multiple, timed and triggered recordings with recording limits. The storage time is
limited by the capacity of the used disks and the number of disks.
To start recording, select “Start” from the “Recording” menu. If no start conditions are set, the recording will
start immediately. If start conditions are set, the recording will start automatically when one of the conditions is
met. The recording will stop when the recording limit is reached, or when “Stop” is selected from the
“Recording” menu.
The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows the state of the recording (“Stopped”, “Writing”, or “Armed”,
the last state indicating it is waiting for one of the start conditions to be met).
Note that when making multiple recordings, you should let the system create filenames automatically, otherwise
the filename you specify will be re-used, and the file overwritten. Automatically generated filenames are
constructed from the date and time the recording starts, thereby making sure each filename is unique and files
will not be overwritten.
Details
Tab “Recording”
Figure 126: Recording dialog window, tab "Recording"
The elements in the “Recording” tab of this dialog are described in the next list:

element description remarks

Create a file name If multiple recordings are to be made, this option will
automatically automatically generate file-names of the form
YYYYMMDDhhmmss.drq
File name If the option to generate filenames automatically is
not switched on, you can specify a filename here.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-
selection dialog.
Location The directory where the raw recording files are to be Do not select a directory
stored on the system disk; see the
notes below.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-
location selection dialog
Recording Limit The maximum size of the raw radar recording. See below for some
Options are: warnings
Unlimited
100 MB
200 MB
400 MB
800 MB
1 GB
4 GB
8 GB
16 GB
32 GB
Progress Shows how many MB of data have been written to
file so far (for this current recording session or file)
OK / Cancel / Apply (Standard elements of Windows)
When choosing the maximum size for a recording file (the “Recording Limit”), please keep the following in
mind:
• At the default resolution (1024 points per radar line), 4 GB of data corresponds to about 15 minutes of
recording
• Certain file-systems have a limit to the maximum file size it can handle. In particular, the FAT file
system cannot handle files larger than 4 GB. This problem can crop up if you want to transfer the
recorded file or files to a DVD or USB stick. (Single-layer single-sided DVDs have a size limit of 4.7
GB anyway)
• Selecting “Unlimited” for the recording limit has the potential of filling the disk that the file is saved to
completely. Use this option with care, and only when an operator is present continuously. Manually
stop the recording before the disk is filled completely.
• Do not store recordings on the Windows system disk. The recording sub-system does not check whether
it might fill the disk completely, it just goes ahead and records. Completely filling the Windows system
disk will render the system inoperable.

Tab “conditions”
Figure 127: Recording dialog window, tab "Conditions"
The following table lists the elements in the tab “Conditions” of the Recording Settings dialog box:

Number of recordings The number of consecutive radar recording files that
should be created (each of the size specified on the
“Recording” tab).
A value of -1 corresponds to “Unlimited”
External event An automatic recording can be started (triggered) by (ExternTrigger.exe is not
an external event. This requires the program part of a default
ExternTrigger.exe to run. The external trigger signal installation; it is available
activates the recording by taking the CTS line (pin 8) at special request)
of serial port 1 (COM1) high.
Timer 1, 2, 3, 4 Automatic recordings can be triggered by up to 4
different timers, each of which can have an interval
associated with it. Which timers are active is selected
by means of the tick-boxes before each timer label.
Start time When a timer is enabled, you can select the time that
the recording should start.
Interval When a timer is enabled, you can select an interval
after which a new recording should be started. New
recordings will be started after each interval after the
set time, until the number of recordings is reached
(unless the number of recordings is set to -1, in which
case there is no limit to the number of recordings
until the disk is filled).
Remarks:
• For an unlimited number of recordings, the same warnings apply that do to an unlimited file size.

III Dialogs 4 Image alignment dialog
4 IMAGE ALIGNMENT DIALOG

Accessing the Image Alignment dialog
The Image Alignment dialog window can be opened in several ways:
• By means of a right-click on the “Image” menu
• By selection of the item “Alignment …” in the “Image” menu
Purpose and use

[See “Image” menu, and section “Loading and using a Geo-encoded image”.]
The image alignment dialog allows compensation of small misalignment between the radar image and the loaded
image.
Details
Figure 128: Image alignment dialog window
element description
Offset X translate the image this amount in the X direction
Offset (Y) translate the image this amount in the Y direction
Rotation rotate the image by this number of degrees (clockwise or counter clockwise)

III Dialogs 5 Polygon settings dialog
5 POLYGON SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the Polygon Settings dialog
The Polygon Settings dialog window can be opened by means of a right-click on the “Polygon” menu.
Purpose and use

See the sub-section “Using Polygons” in the section “Background Topics and Concepts” elsewhere in this
Reference Guide.
See also the description of the “Polygon” menu.
Details
Tab “Polygon Settings”
Figure 129: Polygon Settings dialog window, tab "Polygon Settings"
element description
Layer thickness Specify the layer thickness (in mm) used to calculate the volume in all polygons
defined on-screen
Tab “Font”
→ see Font Selection dialog

III Dialogs 6 Snapshot Settings dialog
6 SNAPSHOT SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the Snapshot Settings dialog
The Snapshot Settings dialog window is accessed by means of a right-click on the menu “Snap Shot”
Purpose and use

Use the “Snap Shot” menu to capture screen images from the system as they appear on-screen.
The images are fully GeoTIFF encoded and can by loaded back into the system for visual comparison. When the
images are edited in an image-processing tool the geo-encoding might be lost; in that case, the image cannot be
loaded back in.
The GeoTIFF image format includes a binary encoding of location and timestamp.
To take a single snapshot:

• Select the menu-item “Take Snap Shot” form the menu “Snap Shot”
or
• Click on the “Snapshot” button on the button-/toolbar (see “User Interface Elements”, “Button Bar /
Toolbar”)
To take a sequence of snapshots, according to the parameters set in the Snapshot Settings dialog:
• Select the menu-item “Start Automatic” form the menu “Snap Shot”
Note: for the difference between a “regular” snapshot and a “Geo” Snapshot, see the section “Difference
between ‘Snapshot’ and ‘Geo Snapshot’ ”.
Details
Figure 130: Snapshot Settings dialog window
element description
Create a filename When checked, the system will generate filenames based on the date and time, in
automatically the format “screen at yyyy-MM-dd hh.mm.ssUTC.tif”
When un-checked, the system will overwrite the selected file
File name If the option to generate a filename automatically is not switched on, you can
specify a filename here.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-selection dialog.
If the filename selected corresponds to an existing file, this file will be overwritten.
Location The directory where the snapshot(s) will be stored.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-location selection dialog.

III Dialogs 6 Snapshot Settings dialog
element description
Put Location and Time on If this option is checked, the geographic information (latitude and longitude in
Image degrees or UTM, depending on the relevant selection in the “View” menu) and time
(in UTC) will be printed at the bottom of the image.
Automatic Snapshot In this area, parameters controlling the automatic, repeated taking of snapshots can
be specified.
Time between snapshots The time-interval in minutes between snapshots.
Number of images The maximum number of snapshots to take in one sequence (an automatic stop
criterion).

III Dialogs 7 Alarm Settings dialog
7 ALARM SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the Alarm Settings dialog
The Alarm Settings dialog window is accessed by means of a right-click on the menu “Oil Spill Tracker”
Purpose and use

In this dialog window, a number of settings to do with alarms can be set; see the details below.
Details
Tab “Alarms Settings”
Figure 131: Alarm Settings dialog window, tab "Alarms Settings"

Generate an Alarm if Area lower area threshold setting for oil spill alarm default: 1000 m2
is bigger than
and present for more than lower time threshold setting for oil spill alarm default: 5 minutes
Sound to Play an on-screen oil spill alarm can be accompanied by a
sound of your choice (by means of a .wav file)
Enable Logging if ticked, detections will be logged in the file
specified in the next text box
file name and location for specify the file name and path to record the alarm log
logging file in. The button “…” will open a standard Windows
file selection dialog
Logging Interval specify the time granularity to use for logging
Log Alarms if ticked, alarms will be included in the log
Log Detection if ticked, detections will be included in the log
Tab “Font”
→ see Font Selection dialog

III Dialogs 8 GeoTIFF Snapshot settings dialog
8 GEOTIFF SNAPSHOT SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the GeoTIFF Snapshot Settings dialog
The GeoTIFF Snapshot Settings dialog window is accessed by means of a right-click on the menu “Geo Snap
Shot”.
Purpose and use

Use the “Geo Snap Shot” menu to record enhanced images as they are stored in memory. The Geo Snapshot
images are always full resolution, full size, and independent of contrast enhancement or zoom factor.
Beyond that, they have the same properties as regular snapshots:
• fully GeoTIFF encoded
• can by loaded back into the system for visual comparison
• when edited in an image-processing tool the geo-encoding might be lost; in that case, the image cannot
be loaded back in
• the GeoTIFF image format includes a binary encoding of location and timestamp
Geo Snap Shots are especially used to create image sequences that should not be disturbed by operator actions
like zooming in, e.g., to create animations, sequences to transmit to other locations, or a “historical” sequence of
the situation.
To take a single Geo Snap Shot:
• Select the menu-item “Take Snap Shot” form the menu “Geo Snap Shot”
To take a sequence of Geo snapshots, according to the parameters set in the Geo Snapshot Settings dialog:
• Select the menu-item “Start Automatic” form the menu “Geo Snap Shot”
The Geo Snap Shot feature does not have a stop criterion; it is up to the user to select “Stop Automatic” from the
menu “Geo Snap Shot”.
Notes:
• for the difference between a “regular” snapshot and a “Geo” Snapshot, see the section “Difference
between ‘Snapshot’ and ‘Geo Snapshot’ ”
• to make settings in this dialog window permanent, use “Save Configuration” from the “Configuration”
menu
Details
Figure 132: GeoTIFF Snapshot Settings dialog window
element description
Cerate a file name When checked, the system will generate filenames based on the date and time, in
automatically the format “yyyy-MM-dd hh.mm.ssUTC.tif”
When un-checked, the system will overwrite the selected file

III Dialogs 8 GeoTIFF Snapshot settings dialog
element description
File name If the option to generate a filename automatically is not switched on, you can
specify a filename here.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-selection dialog.
If the filename selected corresponds to an existing file, this file will be overwritten.
Use creation time for If this check-box is not ticked, instead of the date and time of creating the snapshot,
filename the data and time of the original recording is used to construct the filename.
This is mostly useful when processing pre-recorded radar-data, in “… from file”
operational modes
Location The directory where the snapshot(s) will be stored.
The button “…” leads to a standard Windows file-location selection dialog.
Time between snapshots The time in minutes between snapshots.
Note that in the case of processing pre-recorded radar-data (in “… from file”
operational mode), the time between snapshots is the elapsed computer-time, not
the time that is inherent in the recording. The distinction is especially important as
the playback time of a recording does not necessarily correspond to the original real
time, so to speak.
Put Location and Time on If this option is checked, the geographic information (latitude and longitude in
Image degrees or UTM, depending on the relevant selection in the “View” menu) and time
(in UTC) will be printed at the bottom of the image.
Auto Start If this checkbox is ticked, automatic taking of snapsot will start immediately when
the system starts (using the settings saved with “Save configuration”)
Create Tiff with 16bit gray If this checkbox is ticked, the Tiff images that are created will use a 16-bit
scale grayscale. As not all image processing software can read in 16-bit images, it is
possible to save he images as 8-bit grayscale images instead byunticking this box
Note: if “Create a file name automatically” is un-ticked, the internal time-stamp of the recording is used for the
filename.

III Dialogs 9 Radar settings dialog
9 RADAR SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the Radar Settings dialog
The Radar Settings dialog is reached by either
• a right-click on the Radar menu,
or
• selection of the Settings item in the Radar menu.
Purpose and use

The radar settings dialog allows the specification / selection of a number of parameters that bear on / control
operational aspects of the acquisition of radar data / radar lines.
Notes
• items in this dialog do not control rotation or transmission of the physical radar system
• the settings selected do not take effect until first the “Apply” button is clicked, and then the “Start”
button
• the settings selected are not permanent; if you wish them to be used as selected, make sure to save the
configuration (menu “Configuration”, menu item “Save Configuration”)
Details
Figure 133: Radar Settings dialog window
element description references

Start Start acquiring radar-data (radar lines) using the
active settings.
(Note that the active settings may not be the settings
that show in the various dialog box elements; the
settings shown only take effect after pressing the
“Apply” button.)
Once radar data acquisition is started, settings cannot
be changed until the “Stop” button is clicked.
(See the remark above: items in this dialog window
do not control rotation and / or transmission of the
physical radar system.)


Stop Stop acquiring radar data.
Auto Start If this tick-box is ticked, acquisition of radar data
lines will automatically start when the SeaDarQ
program is started.
Free buffers Indicates to what extent the internal SeaDarQ data
buffers have been filled with radar data. The
SeaDarQ program will start showing processed
results only after the buffers have been filled.
Settings Within this part of the dialog window, there are
several controls to specify operating parameters for
the radar data acquisition
Range Select the maximum range of the radar data lines that
will be shown in the SeaDarQ image.
Using “zoom in” you can (temporarily) view a
smaller range, but the range selected here is the
maximum range you can “zoom out” to.
Possible selections depend on the acquisition card (in
particular, its sampling rate)
Resolution Select the number of points to sample on each line of
radar data.
The default value is 1024; this should not be changed
for operational use.
Other resolutions can be selected for the purposes of
trying to understand a physical process; possible
selections are:
512,
1024,
2048,
and 4096
Note:
• Values other than 1024 are experimental,
and should not be used for operational used,
as they will cause problems
Trigger timeout Specify the number of seconds to use as timeout See also: installation and
before registering a missing trigger pulse. configuration / on-site
installation and
When fine-tuning the system, it can be useful to set
configuration
this value relatively low, to say 5 seconds.
The default value is 50 seconds.
Trigger delay Specify the delay time (in nano-seconds) between the See (on-site) installation
trigger pulse flank and the start of the radar line / and configuration for
video data. details.


Show statistics If this box is ticked, a number of counters and brief description: next
statistics are shown in the right-hand side of the table
dialog window.
operational use: see
The next table gives a brief description of these installation and
counters and statistics. configuration / on-site
installation and
configuration
Clear performance Reset the counters and statistics to 0.
counters
statistics description
performance counter
Angle A running count of the number of pulses from the angular encoder, which starts
over when the counter reaches the number of “Radar Encoder Pulses” set in the
device driver window
Max. angle The maximum that the angle counter reaches.
(This could be different from the “Radar Encoder Pulses” set in the device driver if
the “Radar Encoder Pulses” is set to too high a value)
Min. angle The minimum value that the angle counter reaches.
Delta time The time (in µs) between radar lines (i.e., the time between trigger pulses)
Max. delta The maximum delta time encountered
Min. delta The minimum delta time encountered
Buffer The number of times the internal buffers stall due to lack ofdata.
Trigger A running count of trigger time-outs
Number of lines A running count of the number of radar lines read in (i.e., the number of trigger
pulses received)

III Dialogs 10 Font Selection dialog
10 FONT SELECTION DIALOG

Accessing the Font Selection dialog
The Font Selection Dialog opens as the result of a right-click on the AIS menu.
The Font Selection dialog tab is a separate tab on the dialog windows “Polygon Settings” and “Alarms Settings”
Purpose and use

The Font Selection dialog or dialog tab allows user-control of the font and font appearance of the related on-
screen text.
menu or dialog window interface elements affected

right-cliock AIS menu AIS identification text of ships
Polygon Settings identification text on polygons
Alarms Settings identification text of alarms on the main image
The Font Selection dialog window or tab is a standard Windows font selection dialog window.
Details
element description
Font The font family to use
Font style The font style to use
(regular, bold, italic)
Size The font size to use (in
points)
Effects This groups together the
Color and transparency
controls
Color The color to use for the font
Alpha When the “Transparent”
option-box is ticked, the
slider below allows
adjusting the amount of
transparency
Transparent When ticked, makes the font
transparent; the level of
transparency can be adjusted
with the slider (Alpha)
Sample This region will show a text-
Figure 134: Font Selection dialog window (or tab)
sample with the current
selections for the font
Proof If ticked, any changes to Font (family), Font style and Font Size will be applied to the
relevant text immediately, as if Apply was clicked after every change

III Dialogs 11 Line window
11 LINE WINDOW
Accessing the Line Window
The Line window can be accessed by one of the following means:
• via the menu “View” “Line Window”
• by clicking the toolbar button “Line Window”
The exact appearance and the available functionality depend on whether Advanced Options are enabled or not.
In the sub-section “The details”, these differences are addressed where relevant.
Purpose and use

In the Line window, it is possible to look at the details of the radar-intensity versus distance, for a selected angle
(pie) from the radar outwards. With “Advanced Options” enabled, this can be used for manual background /
range correction. Details of the interface elements (the mechanics, so to speak) will be described here, details of
practical use will be described in the sub-section “Background correction” of the main section “Background
Topics and Concepts”.
Details
“Advanced Options” disabled
Figure 135 shows the appearance of the SeaDarQ window after opening the Line Window, with “Advanced
Options” not enabled. The main screen shrinks to make room for the extra window. Note that the relative vertical
sizes of the sub-windows can be changed by dragging the dividing border until the desired sizes are obtained.
Figure 135: Line Window, Advanced Options NOT enabled
It is not possible to change the top-to-bottom order of these sub-windows, nor is it possible to arrange them side-
by-side instead of vertically.
Another element to note is the two radial lines that appear in the main radar/enhanced image. These lines
demarcate the pie-sector for which the radar-line intensities versus distance are shown in the Line Window. At
the end of these axial lines is a small yellow dot that changes color to red when the mouse pointer is hovered

over them. By clicking-and-dragging these dots, these demarcation lines can be moved (rotated about the centre)
individually. Figure 136 shows a close-up of these lines and the dots at their ends.
Figure 136: Demarcation lines (with yellow dots) determining the Figure 137: Histogram overlay can be
radar lines that are used in the Line Window (detail) repositioned by dragging the green
arrow left or right
The Line Window in fact shows a color-coded histogram of the radar intensities within the demarcated pie area,
as it changes with distance. This color-coded histogram can be observed in a more traditional fashion via a
sliding window within the Line Window. This more traditional histogram is rotated a quarter turn from its truly
traditional appearance. Figure 137 shows a close-up.
The radial distance for which this “traditional” histogram is shown is selected by means of the base-line of this
histogram. This base-line is indicated as the heavier white line at the left-hand side of the sliding window, and by
the green arrow at its bottom. The base-line / distance can be changed by dragging the green arrow (which
changes color to red when the mouse hovers over it) to the desired location (distance) in the Line Window.
As the base-line / arrow is dragged to another location, it continuously updates the histogram to show the
distribution (relative abundance) of radar intensities at that distance (within the demarcation pie).
Do note that the entire radial collection of histograms (as visualised by the color-banded curve) is built-up over a
number of consecutive radar revolutions. In other words, it can take some time before the curve is fully built up.
“Advanced Options” enabled

When “Advanced Options” are enabled (Configuration Enable Advanced Options), the Line Window slightly
changes appearance, as shown in figure 138; it acquires a menu (see also figure 139), and a toolbar with two
buttons (provided View Toolbars is enabled). Some of the menu-items and the two toolbar buttons, are greyed
out and not selectable, unless “Manual Range Correction” is selected.

Figure 138: "Range Correction Curve" menu Figure 139: Menu items and sub-menu in the "Range
appears by enabling Advanced Options Correction Curve" menu
The next table describes the menu-items as well as the two toolbar buttons.
menu item description remarks

No Range Correction Completely switch off all automatic and non-
automatic background / range correction
Automatic Range Correction Use the SeaDarQ built-in algorithms for
automatic correction of the background intensity
with range (distance)
Normal Mode Use the normal algorithms This is the default
Rain Mode Use algorithms that take into account the
distorting influence of possibly passing rain
Manual Range Correction Apply the range correction as specified by the
range-correction curve constructed (or loaded) by
the user.
If a range correction curve was previously built-
up in the current SeaDarQ session, it will still
exist and become both active and editable.
If no range correction curve was previously built-
up in the current SeaDarQ session, the default
range correction curve will be selected (see below
under “reset”)
Selecting this option (“Manual Range
Correction”) enables the following 4 menu-items,
as well as the two toolbar buttons, and the built-in
line-editing facilities.
Reset Reset the range correction curve to its default,
corresponding to no range correction: an even,
flat curve (line), with no amplification and no
attenuation at any range. The range correction
curve will start out with two control points, one at
either end.

menu item description remarks

Add Point Add a control point right in the middle of the amplification / attenuation
window (i.e., in the middle of the distance range, factor on the scale to the
and with no amplification or attenuation (i.e., left of the window:
neither). See the next section, “Editing the
0..50 attenutate,
correction curve”, for details on manipulating the
50 none,
curve.
50..100 amplify;
Save Range Correction Curve Save the range correction curve, in terms of the
location of its control points, to a file.
Selecting this options will lead to a standard
Windows “Save to file” dialog window. Range
correction curves are saved by default with the
extension “.rng”.
Load Range Correction Curve Load a range correction curve, in terms of the
location of its control points, from file.
Selecting this options will lead to a standard
Windows “Open file” dialog window. Range
correction curve files by default have the
extension “.rng”.
toolbar button description

“Add a control point to the range correction curve”;
see above under the menu-item “Add Point”
“Reset the range correction curve to the default”;
see above under the menu-item “Reset”
Editing the correction curve

Editing the correction curve is done by editing control points, in a way that is very similar to editing the control
points of polygons.
The control-points of the range correction curve are indicated by yellow dots. They become editable by hovering
the mouse close enough to them. Editable means you can click-and-drag the selected point to another position, or
you can delete it by right-clicking it (it will disappear without further warning or question, and there is no undo-
function). The selected control-point (i.e., the control-point that the mouse is closest to) will be displayed in red.
You can add a control-point by clicking the mouse very close to or on the range correction curve. The cursor will
have a red dot added to it to indicate that it will add a control-point if clicked. If you click-and-drag while the
cursor has a red dot attached, you can drag the new control-point to a desired position immediately.
The alternative is to click the “Add a control-point” toolbar button, or to select the “Add point” item from the
“Range Correction Curve” menu (local to the range correction/ Line window). In either of these cases, a control
point will be added in the middle of the window.
You can remove a single control-point by moving the mouse very close to or over it. When the control point
turns red, a right-click will delete it.
The following table summarizes the editing options.
what how remarks
add a control point position the mouse on or very close to the correction (see note below)
curve, until a red dot is attached to the cursor, and
click for a new control-point at that location, or click-
and-drag to create a new control-point at the location
where the mouse is released
add a control point in the either click the toolbar button “Add Control Point”, (see note below)
middle of the window or select the menu-item “Add Point” from the (local)
menu “Range Correction Curve”

what how remarks
delete one control point right-click on or close to the control-point (move the instant, without undo
mouse close to or over the control point until its color
changes from yellow to red)
reset the range correction either click the toolbar button “Reset”, or select the
curve to its default “Reset” menu-item from the (local) menu “Range
Correction Curve”
Note: if you manually remove all control-points, including the ones at the very ends of the curve, the first two
control-points you then add (either with the mouse or through button or menu-item) will automatically be added
at the two ends of the curve, irrespective of the location on the curve you’re trying to add these first two points.
Resetting the curve to its default will always result in a flat curve with one control point at either end.

III Dialogs 12 Histogram window
12 HISTOGRAM WINDOW
Accessing the Histogram window
The Histogram window can be accessed by one of the following means:
• via the menu “View” “Histogram Window”
• by clicking the toolbar button “Histogram View”
The exact appearance and the available functionality depend on whether Advanced Options are enabled or not.
In the sub-section “The details”, these differences are addressed where relevant.
Purpose and use

The histogram window is there for historical reasons, mostly. It shows the relative abundance of intensities over
the entire radar image (i.e., the relative number of pixels in the image of each intensity). It is not influenced by
the selection-area for the Line Window (the “pie” in between the “demarcation” lines), but it is influenced by the
range correction selected in the Line Window (be that none, one of the standard automatic ones, or a user-
constructed custom correction curve).
When “Advanced Options” are not enabled (see Configuration Enable Advanced Options), the Histogram
Window only shows this relative abundance of intensities over the entire radar image (i.e., the number of pixels
in the image of each intensity, a.k.a. the intensity distribution). The horizontal axis shows intensities, where 0
corresponds to the lowest intensity (black), and 100 corresponds to the highest intensity (white, or rather, the
brightest green). The relative abundance of each intensity is indicated by the blue (filled) shape.
With “Advanced Options” enabled, the Histogram Window offers the option to perform histogram intensity
mapping, of the enhanced image and of the radar image. In this case, it still shows the intensity distribution in
blue, but it also shows two intensity mapping curves. Manipulation of these intensity mapping curves is
described here under “The details”, “Advanced Option enabled”.
Details
“Advanced Options” disabled
Figure 140 shows the appearance of the SeaDarQ window after opening the Histogram Window, with
“Advanced Options” not enabled.
Figure 140: Histogram Window, Advanced Options NOT enabled

The main SeaDarQ screen shrinks to make room for the extra window. Note that the relative horizontal sizes of
the sub-windows can be changed by dragging the dividing border until the desired sizes are obtained.
As mentioned above, the histogram window shows how often each pixel-intensity appears in the entire image.
The intensities are shown on the horizontal axis, with dark being on the left-hand-side, and bright being on the
right-hand-side. The vertical axis shows how often each intensity appears in the image, relatively speaking, The
scale on the vertical axes is arbitrary in this case.
“Advanced Options” enabled

When “Advanced Options” are enabled
(Configuration Enable Advanced Options), the
Line Window slightly changes appearance, as shown
in figure 141:
• it acquires two menus (see also figure 142),one
for the “enhanced” layer, the other for the
“radar” layer; each of these has its own settings
• and a toolbar with two sets of two buttons
(provided View Toolbars is enabled).
• The window shows two color/intensity
mapping curves, one for the enhanced image
layer, and one for the radar image layer.
• The window also acquires two threshold lines,
which can be moved by means of arrows at the
bottom of the window.
Whether each of the menus and button-sets is greyed
out and not selectable, or available, depends on the
settings for the enhanced and radar image layers: a
layer with setting “hidden” has the corresponding
menu and buttons greyed out.
Visibility of the threshold line and mapping curve for
each of the layers similarly depends on the setting
for the layers: a layer with setting “hidden” has the
corresponding features in the Histogram Window
disabled.
The two menus are shown in figure 142 (the menu-
items are identical, the difference is only in the
menu-name and the layer they affect). The tables on
the next page describes the menu-items as well as the
toolbar buttons. Following the tables is a summary of
the editing options.
The description here limits itself to the “mechanics” Figure 141: Menus in the Histogram Window with
of operation. "Advanced Options" enabled
Following the description of the menu items and
toolbar buttons for manipulation of the color curves
is a brief description of the threshold lines.
Again, the description here limits itself to the
“mechanics” of operation.
Figure 142: Menu items and sub-menu in the “Enhanced

Color Curve” menu

Color curve mapping

For purposes of the mapping curves, the interpretation of the horizontal and vertical axes changes somewhat.
The horizontal axis still represents the intensities in the input radar lines, but the vertical axis and its scale now
represent the intensities that these input intensities are mapped to and displayed as.
The description below, in terms of the “mechanics” (how to manipulate the curves) applies to both the
“Enhanced Color Curve” and the “Radar Color Curve”. The difference is the layer they apply to, which is of
course indicated by their names:
• the “Enhanced Color Curve” mapping applies to the display of the image in the enhanced layer;
the “Enhanced” mapping curve is shown in white
• the “Radar Color Curve” mapping applies to the display of the input radar image in the radar layer;
the “Radar” mapping curve is shown in green
menu item description references / remarks

Add Point Add a control point right in the middle of the See the next section,
histogram window (i.e., in the middle of both the “Editing the correction
input and mapped pixel intensity ranges, mapping the curve”, for details on
half-range input intensity to the same intensity in the manipulating the curve.
displayed layer)
Reset Reset the intensity / color mapping curve to its
default, corresponding to an identical mapping from
input to output intensities, represented by a straight
line in the Histogram window
The default mapping curve has two control points,
one at either end.
Color Fit Choose the type of fixed mapping to apply
Intensity a standard 0 – 100% greyscale mapping: this is the default mapping
for the Enhanced image
layer
0% 50% 100%
Blue – White – Red
0% 50% 100%
Note: as the radar image (layer) is green, applying the
B-W-R color-mapping has no visible result, unless
the color for the radar layer is chosen as white
toolbar button description

“Add a control point to the intensity / color mapping curve”;
see above under the menu-item “Add Point”
“Reset the intensity / color mapping curve to the default”;
see above under the menu-item “Reset”
Editing a correction curve

what how remarks
add a control point position the mouse on or very close to the correction
curve, until a red dot is attached to the cursor, and
click for a new control-point at that location, or click-
and-drag to create a new control-point at the location
where the mouse is released

what how remarks
add a control point in the either click the toolbar button “Add Control Point”,
middle of the window or select the menu-item “Add Point” from the (local)
menu “Enhanced Color Curve” or “Radar Color
Curve”
delete one control point right-click on or close to the control-point (move the instant, without undo
mouse close to or over the control point until its color
changes from yellow to red) see note below
reset the mapping curve to either click the toolbar button “Reset”, or select the
its default “Reset” menu-item from the (local) menu “Enhanced
Color Curve” or “Radar Color Curve”
Note: if you try to remove a control-point at the right-hand end of a mapping curve, SeaDarQ will crash.
Threshold
Each of the layers that have mapping curves in the Histogram Window (both the Radar and the Enhanced layers)
has an adjustable threshold line in the Histogram Window if Advanced Options are enabled.
The threshold lines are indicated by movable vertical lines in the Histogram Window with a green arrow
underneath. The threshold line is a white line for the Enhanced layer, and a green line for the Radar layer. Either
line can be moved by clicking-and-dragging the corresponding arrow. Either arrow will change its color from
green to red to indicate it will be selected, if the mouse hovers close to it.
The threshold for a layer determines the minimum un-mapped intensity that will be displayed in that layer.
The default for the thresholds is 0, meaning that all intensities will be shown.
Note that these thresholds are for display purposes only, they do not affect the automatic detection algorithms.

III Dialogs 13 Configuration Settings dialog
13 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the Configuration Settings dialog
The Configuration Settings dialog window is accessed by means of item “Setup …” in the “Configuration”
menu.
Purpose and use

The Configuration Settings dialog window is the place where settings can be made that control important aspects
of the behaviour of the SeaDarQ program. These are typically one-time settings, to be made at installation-time,
but this is not exclusively so.
These settings are made on a number of tabs that are part of this dialog window.
Details
Note that changes in settings usually do not take hold unless or until the button “Apply” is clicked.
Also see the remark in the general section “SeaDarQ Software Configuration Settings”:
Note: changes to configuration settings are not saved automatically: if not saved explicitly, a
change of operating mode or a restart of the program will revert back to the settings in the registry
(for that mode).
Tab “General”
Figure 143: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "General"
element description
File locations Specify the main directory where snapshots and
recordings will be saved by default. (Snapshots will
be saved into a sub-directory “Images”)
Location You can enter a description of the ship or radar
location where this SeaDarQ system is located.

Tab “Processing Parameters”
Figure 144: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "Processing Parameters"

Invert Video Some radars have a different polarity for the radar
video signal than expected. This tick-box makes it
possible to invert the polarity of the radar signal.
Show Time Stamp When playing back a recording from file, this tick- User Interface Elements
box makes it possible to show the time-stamp of the
original recording on the screen (in the on-screen
panel “Status”)
Show Rotation Time When playing back a recording from file, this tick- User Interface Elements
box makes it possible to show the original rotation
time of the radar antenna
Show Depth If a NMEA device is connected (via the RNI) that User Interface Elements
report the depth under the ship (an echo-sounder,
e.g.), this tick-box enables this information to show
in the on-screen “Navigation” panel (indicated as
“DPTH”)
Show Heading If a NMEA device is connected (via the RNI) that User Interface Elements
report the heading (or bearing) of the ship (an
electronic compass, possibly GPS-derived.), this tick-
box enables this information to show in the on-screen
“Navigation” panel (indicated as “HDG”)
Show Speed If a NMEA device is connected (via the RNI) that User Interface Elements
report the speed of the ship (possibly GPS-derived.),
this tick-box enables this information to show in the
on-screen “Navigation” panel (indicated as “STW”,
for speed through water)


North This edit-box can be used to adjust the north- see the separate document
alignment of the system. Enter a value in degrees. “on-site installation and
configuration”
Note: adjust the value here only during configuration;
at the end of configuration, the final value should be
transferred to the driver
During processing, the value here should be 0.
Trigger delay This edit-box can be used to adjust the trigger delay, see the separate document
Enter a value in nanoseconds. “on-site installation and
configuration”
Note: adjust the value here only during configuration;
at the end of configuration, the final value should be
transferred to the driver
During processing, the value here should be 0.
Main Bang Enter a value in nanoseconds.
“Main bang” refers to the high reflection at the start
of a radar line; it is desirable to block off this high
reflection to avoid influencing the automatic range
correction.
A typical value is 300 ns.
Enable interference This option suppresses radar pulses from other radars enabled by default
suppression (i.e., other ships), which could otherwise cause
interference
Enable inertia filter This filter dampens out variations in GPS and gyro (it enabled by default
filters out jumps in GPS and gyro, which could lead
to instabilities in the program)
Tab “Blocked Areas”
Figure 145: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "Blocked Areas"


Allow Edit When ticked, enables editing the properties of up to 6 See separate section
blocked areas (when not ticked, all other items on “Blocked Areas”
this tab will be greyed out).
Type Allows selection of the type of blocked area from a
drop-down list (either none, circle, pie or ring)
Start Range For ring and pie shaped blocked areas, the distance
radially from the radar of the inner radius of the area
(in meters)
End Range For ring and pie shaped blocked areas, the distance
radially from the radar of the outer radius of the area
(in meters)
Start Angle For pie shaped blocked areas, the start edge of the
blocked area (as an angle relative to the ship’s
direction)
End Angle For pie shaped blocked areas, the end edge of the
blocked area (as an angle relative to the ship’s
direction)
Block Type The type of blocking to apply in the selected area (see the separate section
“Blocked areas” for
details)
See the separate section “Blocked areas” for a description of interactive manipulation of blocked areas.
Tab “Coast Line Server”
Figure 146: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "Coast Line Server"
element description
Database specify the file-location of the coastline database
(This is normally factory-installed, and should not
need change)

Tab “CoastLine Settings”
Figure 147: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "CoastLine Settings"

Disable Land Mask When ticked, masking of land in the radar image See the sub-section
does not happen. “Coastline database and
Land-mask” in the section
When radar line hits land, When ticked, the portion of a radar line that hits land,
“Background Topics and
mark the rest of the radar is not considered as valid for the oil spill detection
Concepts”
line as land algorithms
Note that this option needs to be switched off (un-
ticked) for land-based installations, e.g., on a
lighthouse, as otherwise every single radar-line will
be marked as invalid in its entirety)

Tab “Shadow Detector”
Figure 148: Configuration Settings dialog window, tab "Shadow Detector"

Enable Detector Switch on the Shadow detector (See the sub-section
“Shadow Detector” in the
section “Background
Topics and Concepts” for
details)

III Dialogs 14 File Settings dialog
14 FILE SETTINGS DIALOG

Accessing the File Settings dialog window
The File Settings dialog window is accessed by either
• A right-click on the File menu
or
• Selection of the Settings item in the File menu
Purpose and use

The File Settings dialog window is used for several configuration options for playback of SeaDarQ recordings,
amongst others the playback speed.
Details
Figure 149: File Settings dialog window
element description
Replay when recording ends After a recording reaches its end, start again from the start
Play file on open When a recording has been opened for playback, don’t wait until “Play” is
selected, but start playing it immediately
Play back speed The slider can be used to adjust the playback speed of the recording.
Note that playback speed depends on many factors, such as computer processor
speed and disk access speed. There is currently no exact selection for real-time
speed.
% Read The progress bar in the bottom area of the window shows the percentage of the
recording that has been played back so far.

IV Menus 1 Overview
IV Menus
1 OVERVIEW
Figure 150 shows the menu-bar of the main screen of SeaDarQ v 3.x. Please be aware that the exact order of the
menus is not fixed, and may differ depending on the currently active module(s) and the recent history of module
use. Which menus are visible depends on the processing mode SeaDarQ is in (i.e., which processing module is
active). Only the menus visible in Oil Spill Detection mode are described.
Figure 150: The SeaDarQ main menu
Table 12 lists the menus, and gives a very brief description of the general purpose of the menu-items contained
in each menu.
Most menus in the menu bar allow accelerated access to a configuration dialog window specific to the general
purpose of that menu, by right-clicking the menu name. Table 12 also lists which dialog window opens when
you right-click that menu.
Menu name general purpose when visible right-click

Configuration selection of operating / processing always —
mode (module),
saving and loading of configuration
file,
enabling/disabling of advanced
options,
and access to configuration dialog
View enabling / disabling of specific extra always —
windows (Line and Histogram
window)
visibility of Status and Toolbars,
and various aspects of the main
display
Screen several other aspects of the main always Layers
display
Recording recording of raw radar data always Recording
Image overlay of an image from file always Image Alignment
Polygon creation, manipulation, saving and always Polygon Settings
loading of polygons
AIS display aspects of the incoming always Font Settings
Automatic Identification System
information
Snap Shot taking snapshots of the screen always Snapshot Settngs
Oil Spill Tracker some aspects of the oil spill tracking Oil Spill Detection Alarm Settings
subsystem (from radar / from file)
Geo Snap Shot taking GeoTIFF encoded snapshots Oil Spill Detection (GeoTIFF) Snapshot
of the screen (from radar / from file) Settings
Radar configuration of the handling of Oil Spill Detection from Radar settings
incoming radar lines radar
File playback of recorded radar data Oil Spill Detection from File Settings
file
Table 12: List of menus in the SeaDarQ software

IV Menus 2 Configuration menu
2 CONFIGURATION MENU
General purpose
selection of operating / processing mode (module), saving and loading of configuration file, enabling/disabling
of advanced options, and access to the general SeaDarQ software configuration settings dialog
Menu items
Figure 151 shows the menu items in the Configuration
Menu. Each item is described in more detail below.
Oil Spill Detection from File

Change to processing mode “Oil Spill Detection”, and
change the radar input to come from a file.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are
specific to Oil Spill Detection mode, i.e., “Oil Spill
Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot”, and will enable the
“File” menu. In the mode “Oil Spill Detection from
File”, the menu “Radar” is not available.
For details on the different processing modes or
modules of SeaDarQ, see the section “Modes of
Operation”.
For details on radar input from file versus live radar
input, see the section “Modes of Operation”.
The six menu-items “Oil Spill Detection from File”,
“Sea State from File”, “Enhanced CFAR from File”,
“Oil Spill Detection from Radar”, “Sea State from
Radar”, and “Enhanced CFAR from Radar”, are
mutually exclusive, and determine the processing
mode that SeaDarQ is in. The current processing mode
is indicated by a tick-mark in front of the menu-item;
Figure 151: Configuration menu
as an example, in figure 151, the active processing
mode is “Oil Spill Detection from Radar”.
Sea State from File
Change to the “Hydrography & Wave Processing” mode, and change the radar input to come from a file.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are specific to the Hydrography & Wave Processing mode,
i.e., “Wave”, and “Wave Info”, and will enable the “File” menu. In the mode “Sea State from File”, the
menus “Radar”, “Oil Spill Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot” are not available.
For details on the different processing modes or modules of SeaDarQ, see the section “Modes of Operation”.
For details on radar input from file versus live radar input, see the section “Modes of Operation”.
The six menu-items “Oil Spill Detection from File”, “Sea State from File”, “Enhanced CFAR from File”, “Oil
Spill Detection from Radar”, “Sea State from Radar”, and “Enhanced CFAR from Radar”, are mutually
exclusive, and determine the processing mode that SeaDarQ is in. The current processing mode is indicated
by a tick-mark in front of the menu-item; as an example, in figure 151, the active processing mode is “Oil
Spill Detection from Radar”.
Enhanced CFAR from file
Change to processing mode “Enhanced CFAR”, and change the radar input to come from a file.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are specific to the Enhanced CFAR mode, i.e., “Oil Spill
Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot”, and will enable the “File” menu. In the mode “Enhanced CFAR from File”,
the menus “Radar”, “Wave”, and “Wave Info” are not available.

Oil Spill Detection from Radar

Change to processing mode “Oil Spill Detection”, and change the input to come from the live radar data
input.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are specific to Oil Spill Detection mode, i.e., “Oil Spill
Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot”, and will enable the “Radar” menu. In the mode “Oil Spill Detection from
Radar”, the menus “File”, “Wave”, and “Wave Info” are not available.
Sea State from Radar
Change to the “Hydrography & Wave Processing” mode, and change the input to come from the live radar
data input.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are specific to the Hydrography & Wave Processing mode,
i.e., “Wave”, and “Wave Info”, and will enable the “Radar” menu. In the mode “Sea State from Radar”, the
menus “File”, “Oil Spill Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot” are not available.
Enhanced CFAR from Radar
Change to processing mode “Enhanced CFAR”, and change the input to come from the live radar data input.
Selection of this mode will enable the menus that are specific to the Enhanced CFAR mode, i.e., “Oil Spill
Tracker”, and “Geo Snap Shot”, and will enable the “Radar” menu. In the mode “Enhanced CFAR from
Radar”, the menus “File”, “Wave”, and “Wave Info” are not available.
Save Configuration
Save the current configuration settings.
Using this menu item, these settings are saved to the registry
For the difference between saving the configuration and exporting the configuration to XML, refer to the
section “SeaDarQ software configuration settings”
Export XML Configuration
Save the current configuration settings to an XML file. Selecting this menu item will open a standard
Windows “Save File as …” dialog window, allowing you to specify a new filename and –location to use for
the XML configuration file, or to select an existing XML configuration file to overwrite.
Import XML Configuration
Load an XML file with configuration settings you wish to use. Selecting this menu item will open a standard
Windows “Open File …” dialog window, allowing you to select an existing XML configuration file.

Set Configuration as Default

Take the current configuration settings and use these as the defaults that SeaDarQ uses when it starts up
(including in particular the processing mode).
Note that changes to a combination of configuration settings that is not explicitly saved or marked to use as
default will not survive a restart of SeaDarQ, nor even a change of processing mode.
Restore Factory Defaults
Discard any and all changes to configuration settings, and reload a standard default set of settings that are
predefined as “Factory Defaults”.
Note that even a change of configuration settings to the Factory Defaults that is not explicitly saved or
marked to use as default will not survive a restart of SeaDarQ, nor even a change of processing mode.
Setup…
Selection of this menu-item will open the general, multi-tabbed SeaDarQ Configuration Settings dialog
window. For the variety of configuration settings that can be set in this dialog window (and its different tabs),
see the section “Configuration Settings dialog” (and “SeaDarQ software configuration settings”).
Note that certain special configuration settings will only be accessible if “Advanced Options” is enabled.
Enable Advanced Options
Selection of this menu-item toggles the possibility of changing Advanced Options in various configuration
parts of the SeaDarQ software. If there is a tick-mark in front of this menu-item (as in figure 151), access to
“Advanced Options” is switched on; absence of a tick-mark indicates that “Advanced Options” are currently
not accessible.
Exit
Close down the SeaDarQ program.
Please be aware that closing down the SeaDarQ program does not lead to a question about saving of
configuration settings; changes to configuration settings and even selection of a different processing mode
are discarded when exiting the program. If you wish to save configuration settings, you have to do so
explicitly through use of the menu-items “Save Configuration” or “Export XML Configuration”. If you wish
SeaDarQ to start in the current processing mode after a restart, you have to select the current processing
mode as default through the menu-item “Set Configuration as Default”.
Right-click dialog window

A right-click on the Configuration Menu does not lead to any dialog window.

IV Menus 3 View menu
3 VIEW MENU
General purpose
enabling / disabling of specific extra windows (Line and Histogram window)
visibility of Status and Toolbars,
and various aspects of the main display
Menu items
Figure 152 shows the menu items in the View Menu.
Each item is described in more detail below.
Line Window
Toggles the presence of the “Line” window, which shows the radar
intensity of a number of radar lines as a function of distance from
the radar antenna. If the Line Window is visible, the icon in front of
this menu-item acquires a thin outline, somewhat suggesting the
appearance of “pressed” button.
If “Advanced Options” are enabled, this window also gives access
to a menu (attached to the Line Window) that allows advanced
control over various aspects of the Range Correction that is used.
For details on the Line Window, see the section “Line Window”.
For details on the Range Correction, see both the sections “Line
Window” and “Range Correction”.
Histogram Window
Toggles the presence of the “Histogram” window, which shows a
histogram of the intensities in the entire radar image. If the
Histogram Window is visible, the icon in front of this menu-item
acquires a thin outline, somewhat suggesting the appearance of
“pressed” button.
If “Advanced Options” are enabled, this window also gives access
to options to manipulate the color curve (color mapping) for the Figure 152: View menu
radar image and the color curve for the enhanced image.
For details on the Histogram window and on manipulation of color curves, see the sections “Histogram
window”.
Full screen
Toggles exclusive take-over of the entire Windows screen real-estate.
If “Full screen” is enabled (indicated by means of a tick-mark in front of this menu-item), the SeaDarQ
window takes up the entire screen, and stays on top of all other windows, rendering other windows
inaccessible.
Status Bar
Toggles the presence of the status bar at the bottom of the SeaDarQ window. If the Status Bar is present, a
tick-mark is present in front of this menu-item.
For information about the details that are shown in the Status Bar, see the section “Status Bar” in the chapter
“User Interface Elements”.
Toolbars
Toggles the presence / accessibility of toolbars in various SeaDarQ windows. If toolbars are accessible, a
tick-mark is present in front of this menu-item.
Toolbars can be present in the main SeaDarQ window, and in the Line and Histogram windows, provided
Advanced Options are enabled. The “Toolbars” menu-item-toggle influences the toolbars in all of these
windows.
Km
This menu-item selects kilometres as the unit of distance in the SeaDarQ interface.
It is mutually exclusive with the “Nm” menu-item, which selects nautical miles as the unit of distance; a tick-
mark in front of one of these menu-items indicates which one is selected.

IV Menus 3 View menu
Nm
This menu-item selects nautical miles as the unit of distance in the SeaDarQ interface.
It is mutually exclusive with the “Km” menu-item, which selects kilometres as the unit of distance; a tick-
mark in front of one of these menu-items indicates which one is selected.
Day
Selects the “Day” color- and intensity scheme for display.
This menu-item is mutually exclusive with the menu-item “Night”. Which of the two is active, is indicated
by a tick-mark in front of the active one.
Refer to the description of the “Layers” dialog window for an overview of the colors that are used for the
different layers for “Day” and “Night” display. If required, these colors can be changed in the “Layers”
dialog window.
Night
Selects the “Night” color- and intensity scheme for display.
This menu-item is mutually exclusive with the menu-item “Day”. Which of the two is active, is indicated by
a tick-mark in front of the active one.
Refer to the description of the “Layers” dialog window for an overview of the colors that are used for the
different layers for “Day” and “Night” display. If required, these colors can be changed in the “Layers”
dialog window.
Degrees
Selects degrees and (decimal) minutes as the units for geographical location.
This menu-item is mutually exclusive with the menu-item “UTM”. Which of the two is active, is indicated by
a tick-mark in front of the active one.
UTM
Selects “meters UTM” as the units for geographical location.
This menu-item is mutually exclusive with the menu-item “Degrees”. Which of the two is active, is indicated
by a tick-mark in front of the active one.

A right-click on the Configuration Menu does not lead to any dialog window.

IV Menus 4 Screen menu
4 SCREEN MENU
General purpose
several other aspects of the main display
Menu items
Figure 153 shows the menu items in the Screen Menu. Each item is described in more
detail below.
North Up
Toggles how the radar image is displayed, in terms of what the top of the screen
represents: North, or the direction (heading) of the ship.
If the top of the image represents North, (i.e., if “North Up” is selected) the icon in
front of this menu-item acquires a thin outline, somewhat suggesting the Figure 153: Screen
appearance of “pressed” button. If the top of the image represents the ship’s menu
heading (“North Up” is de-selected), the icon is displayed without the “pressed”
outline.
Irrespective of the selection of this menu-item, the ship’s heading is indicated on the radar image by a blue
line from the centre of the radar iamge to its edge. Obviously, when the top of the image represents the
heading of the ship, this blue line points straight up. The compass ring around the edge of the image adjusts
in correspondence with the setting of this menu item and the ship’s heading.
Fit
Reverts back to a window-filling zoomed-out display of the radar image.
For the various ways of zooming in to and out of the radar image, see the section “Radar Image” in the
chapter “User Interface Elements”
Layers…
Opens the “Layers” dialog window, allowing a range of customizations of the various layers in the radar
image. These range from visibility of individual layers to day- and night-time colors, and even the degree of
transparency.
For details on the Layers dialog window, see the section “Layers dialog”.

Opens the “Layers” dialog window, allowing a range of customizations of the various layers in the radar image.
These range from visibility of individual layers to day- and night-time colors, and even the degree of
transparency.
For details on the Layers dialog window, see the section “Layers dialog”.

IV Menus 5 Recording menu
5 RECORDING MENU
General purpose
recording of raw radar data
For details, see the description of the Recording dialog window elsewhere in this guide.
Menu items
Figure 154 shows the menu items in the Recording Menu. Each item is described in
more detail below.
Start
Starts the recording of raw radar data to a SeaDarQ DRQ file.
Configuration settings for the file should have been made prior to starting the Figure 154: Recording
recording; these are made in the “Recording” dialog window, which can be menu
accessed by right-clicking the “Recording” menu.
The “Start” and “Stop” menu-items are, of course, mutually exclusive, and indicate which of the two states
the recording subsystem is in: the current state is indicated both by a tick-mark (with a thin outline,
suggesting a “pressed” button) and by being greyed-out and not selectable (as it makes no sense to re-select
the state that this subsystem is already in). The menu-item corresponding to the alternate, not-selected state,
does not have a tick-mark, is not greyed out, and is selectable.
Stop
Stops the recording of raw radar data to a SeaDarQ DRQ file.
Configuration settings for the file should have been made prior to starting the recording; these are made in
the “Recording” dialog window, which can be accessed by right-clicking the “Recording” menu.
The “Start” and “Stop” menu-items are, of course, mutually exclusive, and indicate which of the two states
the recording subsystem is in: the current state is indicated both by a tick-mark (with a thin outline,
suggesting a “pressed” button) and by being greyed-out and not selectable (as it makes no sense to re-select
the state that this subsystem is already in). The menu-item corresponding to the alternate, not-selected state,
does not have a tick-mark, is not greyed out, and is selectable.

Opens the “Recording” dialog window, which gives access to a number of configurable / adjustable settings that
are relevant for recordings, amongst others the filename to use, where to store the file, and the maximum size of
the recording file.
For details on the Recording dialog window, see the section “Recording dialog”.
Also, heed the warnings about file size limits and the risk of completely filling a disk in the computer.

IV Menus 6 Image menu
6 IMAGE MENU
General purpose
overlay of an image from file
See also:
• the description of the Image Alignment dialog window
Menu items
Figure 155 shows the menu items in the Image Menu. Each item is described in
more detail below.
Load from File…
Load a GeoTIFF encoded image from file.
Selecting this menu item will open a standard Windows “Open File …”
dialog window, allowing you to select the file that contains the image you
wish to load. Figure 155: Image menu
The image will be loaded into the Image layer.
Remove
Delete any and all images in the Image layer.
Alignment…
Image Alignment dialog window

Image Alignment dialog window

IV Menus 7 Polygon menu
7 POLYGON MENU
General purpose
creation, manipulation, saving and loading of polygons
See also:
• sub-section “Using Polygons” in the section “Background Topics and Concepts” elsewhere in this
Reference Guide
• the description of the Polygon Settings dialog window elsewhere in this guide.
Menu items
Figure 156 shows the menu items in the Polygon Menu. Each item is
described in more detail below.
Add Polygon
Create a new, three-sided, polygon, with its lower edge centered on the
origin (i.e., the radar location)
Add Line
Create a new line, centered on the origin (i.e., the radar location)
Remove All
Delete all polygons and/or lines in the image
Load from File…
Reload previously saved polygons and lines. A standard Windows file- Figure 156: Polygon menu
selection dialog window will open to allow specification (selection) of the
desired file.
(See also the notes in the sub-section “Using Polygons” in the section “Background Topics and Concepts”
elsewhere in this Reference Guide regarding layer thickness, location, and removal of currently defined
polygons and lines.)
Save to File…
Save all polygons and lines currently defined to a file. A standard Windows file-selection dialog window will
open to allow specification (selection) of the file and file-location to use.
(See also the notes in the sub-section “Using Polygons” in the section “Background Topics and Concepts”
elsewhere in this Reference Guide regarding layer thickness.)

Polygon settings dialog window

IV Menus 8 AIS menu
8 AIS MENU
General purpose
display aspects of the incoming Automatic Identification System information
The AIS module will display AIS information from ships in the neighborhood, when a AIS receiver is connected
to the system. The AIS information is also stored in recordings and thus can be reviewed when a recording is
played back.
If the AIS layer is visible, each ship that transmits AIS information is indicated by a blue dot on the screen.
Whether additional information is shown for ships, depends on the selections activated in the AIS menu.
What information is available on a ship depends on the information that ship transmits.
If the mouse is hovered over the dot indicating a ship with AIS information, the AIS label of that ship is shown
in red, and, if tracks are shown, the ships track is indicated in red dots.
If ”Show Labels” is enabled, the labels for all ships transmitting AIS information are shown continusously in
blue (or the color selected for the AIS layer).
If ”Show Tracks” is enabled (on), the ships tracks (so determined from the AIS information they transmit) are
indicated in smaller dots.
You can find examples in the sub-section “AIS” in the section “Background Topics and Concepts”.
Menu items
Figure 157 shows the menu items in the AIS Menu. Each item is described in more
detail below.
Show Labels
Toggles the display of AIS ship identification strings.
If “Show Labels” is active (indicated by a tick-mark in front of this menu-item),
each ship in the image that transmits AIS information is labelled with a subset
of this information.
If “Show Labels” is inactive (indicated by lack of a tick-mark in front of this Figure 157: AIS menu
menu-item), a subset of the AIS information that a ship in the image transmits
is only shown as an attached label if the mouse is hovered over the (blue) dot indicating the ship.
Show Tracks
Toggles the display of ship tracks that can be deduce from the AIS information sent out by ships.
If “Show Tracks” is active (indicated by a tick-mark in front of this menu-item), ship tracks are shown.
If “Show Tracks” is inactive (indicated by lack of a tick-mark in front of this menu-item), ship tracks are not
shown.

Font selection dialog window.
This allows control of the font and font appearance used for the labels displaying the AIS information.

IV Menus 9 Snap Shot menu
9 SNAP SHOT MENU

General purpose
taking snapshots of the screen
See also:
• the Snapshot Settings dialog window
• the Geo Snap Shot menu, for creating GeoTIFF encoded snapshots of the screen.
• the section “Difference between snapshot and geo-snapshot”
Menu items
Figure 158 shows the menu items in the Snap Shot Menu. Each item is
Take Snap Shot
Take a single snapshot of the screen (using the current active settings for
snapshots, as can be set via the Snapshot Settings dialog window, insofar
as these are relevant for a single snapshot)
A single snapshot of the screen can also be taken by means of the Snapshot
button on the toolbar; see the section “Button Bar / Toolbar” in the chapter
Figure 158: Snapshot menu
“User Interface Elements” for the appearance and location of this button.
Start Automatic
Start automatically taking regular snapshots of the screen, using the current settings for snapshots, as can be
set via the Snapshot Settings dialog window. The current settings include the time between snapshots. Taking
snapshots will continue until the “Stop Automatic” menu-item is selected.
Once automatic taking of snapshots is started:
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will get a tick-mark in front of it, to indicate that it is active;
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will also grey-out and become un-selectable;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will no longer have a tick-mark in front of it;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will no longer be greyed-out, and it becomes selectable
Stop Automatic
Stop automatically taking regular snapshots of the screen.
Once automatic taking of regular snapshots is stopped:
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will no longer have a tick-mark in front of it;
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will not be greyed-out, and it becomes selectable
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will get a tick-mark in front of it, to indicate that it is the current
state;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will also be greyed-out and un-selectable;

Snap Shot Settings dialog window
Note that once automatic snapshot taking has started, changes in the Snapshot Settings dialog (which is still
accessible) do not take effect until after the session of snapshots “in progress” is finished or stopped.

IV Menus 10 Oil Spill Tracker menu
10 OIL SPILL TRACKER MENU

General purpose
some aspects of the oil spill tracking subsystem
See also:
• the description of the Alarm Settings dialog window elsewhere in this guide.
Menu items
Figure 159 shows the menu items in the Oil Spill Tracker Menu. Each
item is described in more detail below.
Show Track Gate
Toggles on-screen display of the area in which the algorithms will
track each potential oil spill
Figure 159: Oil Spill Tracker menu
Alarms settings dialog window

IV Menus 11 Geo Snap Shot menu
11 GEO SNAP SHOT MENU

General purpose
taking GeoTIFF encoded snapshots of the screen
See also:
• the GeoTIFF Snap Shot Settings dialog window
• the Snap Shot menu, for creating “regular” snapshots of the screen.
• the section “Difference between snapshot and geo-snapshot”
Menu items
Figure 160 shows the menu items in the Geo Snap Shot Menu. Each item is
Take snap shot
Take a single GeoTIFF encoded snapshot of the screen (using the current
active settings for GeoTIFF snapshots, as can be set via the GeoTIFF Snapshot
Settings dialog window, insofar as these are relevant for a single snapshot)
Start automatic
Figure 160: Geo Snapshot
Start automatically taking GeoTiff encoded snapshots of the screen, using the menu
current settings for GeoTIFF snapshots, as can be set via the GeoTIFF
Snapshot Settings dialog window. The current settings include the time between snapshots. Taking snapshots
will continue until the “Stop Automatic” menu-item is selected.
Once automatic taking of GeoTiff encoded snapshots is started:
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will get a tick-mark in front of it, to indicate that it is active;
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will also grey-out and become un-selectable;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will no longer have a tick-mark in front of it;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will no longer be greyed-out, and it becomes selectable
Stop automatic
Stop automatically taking GeoTiff encoded snapshots of the screen.
Once automatic taking of GeoTiff encoded snapshots is stopped:
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will no longer have a tick-mark in front of it;
• the “Start Automatic” menu-item will not be greyed-out, and it becomes selectable
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will get a tick-mark in front of it, to indicate that it is the current
state;
• the “Stop Automatic” menu-item will also be greyed-out and un-selectable;

GeoTIFF snapshot settings dialog window
Note that once automatic snapshot taking has started, changes in the Snapshot Settings dialog (which is still
accessible) do not take effect until after the session of snapshots “in progress” is finished or stopped.

IV Menus 12 Radar menu
12 RADAR MENU
General purpose
configuration of the handling of incoming radar lines
For details, see the description of the Radar settings dialog window
Menu items
Figure 161 shows the menu items in the Radar Menu. Each item is described
in more detail below.
Settings…
Opens the Radar settings dialog window
Right-click dialog window Figure 161: Radar menu

Opens the Radar settings dialog window

IV Menus 13 File menu
13 FILE MENU
General purpose
playback of recorded radar data
See also:
• The File Settings dialog window
• The Recording menu (to create a SeaDarQ recording)
• The Recording dialog window (for various configuration options for recordings)
Note: this menu is only available if one of the “from file” modes is selected from the Configuration menu (in the
context of this manual: Oil Spill Detection from File)
Menu items
Figure 162 shows the menu items in the File Menu. Each item is briefly described
below.
Settings…
Opens the File Settings dialog window
Open
Open a SeaDarQ recording for playback.
Selecting this menu item will open a standard Windows “Open File …” dialog
window, allowing you to select a file with a previously made SeaDarQ Figure 162: File menu
recording. If an XML configuration file exists in the same directory as the
recording, and with the same name as the recording, this configuration file will be loaded automatically. This
way, various configuration settings, in particular any blocked areas, will be re-established for playback of the
recording.
SeaDarQ recordings by default have an extension “.drq”
Note that when “Play file on open” is selected in the File Settings dialog window, the recording starts playing
immediately.
Play
Start playing the recording that was selected via the “Open” menu item.
Notes:
• When “Play file on open” is selected in the File Settings dialog window, the recording starts playing
immediately
• When “Replay when recording ends” is selected in the File Settings dialog window, the recording
will start playing again from the start after it reaches its end
Stop
Stop playing the recording.

File settings dialog window


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SeaDarQ v 3

Oil Spill Detection

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

12 Histogram window .................................................................................................................................. 84

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

3 ASSUMPTIONS AND SCOPE

Section I briefly introduces this manual.

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

II Background Topics and Concepts

2 MODES OF OPERATION / PROCESSING MODES / MODULES

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

radar energy arriving at target ~ 1/R2

iradar energy reflected by target

Figure 1: Illustration of smearing out of radar energy

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

4 SEADARQ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

4.2 General configuration

step for details, see: remarks

“hardware” configuration On-Site Installation and Configuration (rev. 0.4)

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

• Switch off radar layer, show On-screen menu selection

Operational Image Configuration

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

step for details, see: remarks

Recording snapshots, geo snapshots, or raw radar video lines:

4.3 Advanced options

Examples of use where it is necessary to switch on (enable) Advanced Options:

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

5 STARTING THE SYSTEM

After that, go through the following steps:

(From OPERATIONAL MANUAL V 2.1: )

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

6 USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS

Assumptions and scope

6.2 SeaDarQ main screen

Figure 2: SeaDarQ main screen, and its elements

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

6.3 Radar image

Figure 3: The (raw) radar image

Figure 4: The enhanced image

Figure 5: The confidence map

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

zooming in and out

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

6.4 Button bar / toolbar

Figure 7: The button- or toolbar

button tooltip description corresponding menu option

Figure 8: The status bar

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

button label description comments

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

button label description comments

6.6 Menu bar

Figure 9: The layers panel

To change the status of one of these layers, do one of the following:

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

layer name description remarks

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

abbreviation meaning possible settings remarks

SeaDarQ v 3 Oil Spill Detection

Figure 12: The navigation panel