Signatures of Small Boats With TerraSAR-X Staring Spotlight Data

Abstract

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an important technology for ship detection applications. It can provide timely information on small boat locations, which is important for security and safety applications. This letter describes the advantages of using very-high-resolution TerraSAR-X data acquired in staring spotlight mode for detecting small boats. Coincident to the SAR image acquisitions, electro-optical (EO) satellite imagery was used, together with field photographs of boats. The results demonstrate the ability to distinguish SAR signatures of small wooden and fiberglass vessels with the size of up to 4 m in length.