Space Remote Sensing and Detecting Systems of Oceangoing Ships

Dimov Stojce Ilcev

doi:10.7225/toms.v09.n02.004

Abstract

This paper introduces the implementation of space remote sensing and detecting systems of oceangoing ships as an alternative to the Radio – Automatic Identification System (R-AIS), Satellite – Automatic Identification System (S-AIS), Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT), and other current vessel tracking systems. In this paper will be not included a new project known as a Global Ship Tracking (GST) as an autonomous and discrete satellite network designed by the Space Science Centre (SSC) for research and postgraduate studies in Satellite Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) at Durban University of Technology (DUT). The ship detection from satellite remote sensing imagery system is a crucial application for maritime safety and security, which includes among others ship tracking, detecting and traffic surveillance, oil spill detection service, and discharge control, sea pollution monitoring, sea ice monitoring service, and protection against illegal fisheries activities. The establishment of a modern sea surface and ships monitoring system needs enhancement of the Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SSAR) that is here discussed as a modern observation infrastructure integrated with Ships Surveillance and Detecting via SSAR TerraSAR-X Spacecraft, Ships Surveillance and Detecting via SSAR Radarsat Spacecraft and Vessels Detecting System (VDS) via SSAR.

Highlights

Space remote sensing and detecting systems of oceangoing vessels are very important applications for their tracking, positioning and control
Remote sensing images of the sea surface immediately reveal that ships can be seen from space with radar, optical sensors and especially via a Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radars (SSAR) onboard Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) spacecraft
In this paper is proposed the space remote sensing and detecting systems of the oceangoing ships as an alternative to current applications used in the maritime transportation industry

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Space remote sensing and detecting systems of oceangoing vessels are very important applications for their tracking, positioning and control. These significant signatures can provide information useful to environmental scientists, coastal and fishery managers, and law enforcement agencies Characteristics such as high resolution (10 to 100 m), sensitivity to small variations in surface roughness (on the order of centimeters), and especially the strong signal return from hard targets like ships make SSAR systems adept at detecting vessels at sea. The requirements of SSAR are: Stable, full-coherent transmitter, an efficient and powerful SSAR processor and exact knowledge of the flight path and the velocity of the platform Using such a technique, radar designers, are able to achieve demanded resolutions, which would require real aperture antennas so large as to be impractical with arrays ranging in size up to 10 m. The top of the feature is displaced towards the radar from its true position on the ground, and „lays over” the base of the feature (b' to a'), shown in Figure 5 (Right) (Wolff, 2015, DLR, 2002)

Ships Surveillance and Detecting via SSAR TerraSAR-X Spacecraft

SHIPS SURVEILLANCE AND DETECTING VIA SSAR RADARSAT SPACECRAFT

CONCLUSION