PASSIVE METHOD FOR REMOTE DETERMINATION OF THICKNESS OF OIL PRODUCT FILM SPREAD ON WATER SURFACE Russian patent published in 2003 - IPC

FIELD: methods for determining thickness of non-metallic materials, possibly determining thickness of oil product film spread on water surface. SUBSTANCE: method comprises steps of using background non-polarized sky irradiation in millimeter range of wave lengths as irradiation source of plane electromagnetic wave; receiving vertically polarized component of amplitude of electric field by angle θ, non-equal to Brewster angle; according to received amplitude calculating with use of Fresnel's formula amplitudes of vertically polarized components of electric field mirror-imaged from boundary "air-oil product film" and reflected from lower layer of oil product film at its boundary with water surface and refracted at boundary " oil product film - air" at known refractive index values of media; then measuring sum of amplitudes of two coherent waves of mirror-image and refracted vertically polarized components of electric field by the same angle θ, set from normal line to surface of oil product film in direction to oil product film while taking into account their phase difference at inlet of measuring device; calculating thickness of film of oil product. EFFECT: possibility for measuring oil product film thickness in natural condition. 2 dwg