The COSMO-SkyMed Constellation Monitors the Costa Concordia Wreck

Federico Raspini,Fabrizio Novali,Sandro Moretti,Alfio Fumagalli,Alessandro Ferretti,Alessio Rucci,Nicola Casagli,Claudio Prati

doi:10.3390/rs6053988

Federico Raspini, Fabrizio Novali + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6053988

Copy DOI

Abstract

On 13 January 2012, the Italian vessel, Costa Concordia, wrecked offshore Giglio Island, along the coast of Tuscany (Italy). The ship partially sunk, lying on the starboard side on a 22° steep rocky seabed, making the stability conditions of the ship critically in danger of sliding, shifting and settling. The tilted position of the ship created also pernicious conditions for the divers involved in the search and rescue operations. It became immediately clear that a continuous monitoring of the position and movements of the ship was of paramount importance to guarantee the security of the people working around and within the wreck. Starting from January 19, the Italian constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, COSMO-SkyMed (CSK), was tasked to acquire high resolution images of the wreck. Thanks to CSK’s short response and revisiting time and its capability to acquire high resolution images in Spotlight mode, satellite data were integrated within the real time, ground-based monitoring system implemented to provide the civil protection authorities with a regular update on the ship stability. Exploitation of both the phase (satellite radar interferometry, InSAR) and amplitude (speckle tracking) information from CSK images, taken along the acquisition orbit, Enhanced Spotlight (ES)-29, revealed a general movement of the translation of the vessel, consistent with sliding toward the east of the hull on the seabed. A total displacement, with respect to the coastline, of 1666 mm and 345 mm of the bow and stern, respectively, was recorded, over the time period of 19 January–23 March 2012.

Highlights

The Costa Concordia cruise ship, with 3206 passengers and 1023 crew members on board, was sailing off Giglio Island on the night of 13 January 2012, having begun a planned seven-day cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona and five other ports in the Mediterranean Sea
Only a very limited number of images could be acquired in Enhanced Spotlight (ES)-09 mode, so it was necessary to rely on ES-29 mode alone
This paper presented a successful exploitation of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in an operational scenario, describing an application tailored for a specific situation, during disaster management for civil protection purposes

Summary

Introduction

The Costa Concordia cruise ship, with 3206 passengers and 1023 crew members on board, was sailing off Giglio Island on the night of 13 January 2012, having begun a planned seven-day cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona and five other ports in the Mediterranean Sea. The reef is charted as an area known as Le Scole, about 800 meters south of the entrance to the harbor of Giglio Porto, on the island’s east coast (Figure 1). The initial impact was at a point eight meters below the water at “Scola piccola”, the most seaward exposed rock of Le Scole, which tore a. 50-meter gash in the ship’s portside below the water line. The impact sheared from the ship’s hull two long strips of steel, later found on the seabed 92 to 96 m from the main island. The ship has a large boulder embedded in the hull at the aft end of the impact gash

Objectives

Results

Conclusion