Use of SIR-C/X-SAR to monitor environmental damages of the 1991 Gulf War in Kuwait

False composites of the synthetic image radar (SIR)-C/X-synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data reveal a number of features related to the environmental devastation wrought by the Gulf War. Of particular note are the buried oil lakes which are readily detected and mapped using the spectral gradient of hh-polarized backscatter. Knowledge of the location and extent of these bodies are of great importance to resource recovery and environmental remediation efforts.