MARISS - Near Real Time Ship Detection with TerraSAR-X

Abstract

Ship detection is an important application of global monitoring of environment and security. In order to overcome the limitations by other systems, surveillance with satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is used because of its possibility to provide ship detection at high resolution over wide swaths and in all weather conditions. Results on the combined use of TerraSAR-X (X-Band) and ENVISAT (C-Band) ship detection, automatic identification system (AIS), and satellite AIS (SatAIS) in Near Real Time (NRT) is presented. The AIS system is an effective terrestrial method for tracking vessels in real time typically up to 40 km off the coast. SatAIS, as a space-based system, allows almost global coverage for monitoring of ships since not all ships operate their AIS and smaller ships are not equipped with AIS. The system is considered to be of cooperative nature. The quality of TerraSAR-X images with respect to ship detection is evaluated and the performance for ship detection is given. Results of Near Real Time applications in the framework of the ESA project MARISS are presented. Existing algorithms and Near Real Time capabilities can be adapted to the Sentinel Mission.