The special indications in Synthetic Aperture Radar images formed by oil slicks on ocean surface

which are seeped from hydrocarbon under sea bed

is important to search ocean oil and gas resources. This paper explores the segmentation of oil spills using a partial differential equation （PDE） level set method

which represents the oil slick surface as an implicit propagation interface. Specifically

the image intensity gradient is utilized as the impetus and direction for oil slick propagation. The integration of the intensity driven speed and curvature flow into the method allows the front interface to propagate naturally with topological changes

significant protrusions and narrow regions

giving rise to a stable and smooth boundary. In addition

it reduces the speckles simultaneously. The proposed method has been illustrated by experiments on oil slick segmentation using the ERS-2 SAR images. Its advantages over the traditional image segmentation approaches have also been demonstrated.