Use of Open-Source Satellite Data to Combat Organized Crime Case Study: Detection of Vessels Associated with Drug-Trafficking

Abstract

Undoubtedly the importance of acquiring Earth Observation satellite information for a country is a priority since these images can have different uses such as cartography, disaster, climate change impact, border control, or in general to sustainable development, even more for developing countries. Continually, a large volume of global coverage satellite data is collected and supplied. However, availability of open-source data remains under-leveraged. For this reason, this research is focused on the study of the radar satellite images that are useful for monitoring and drug trafficking control support, through the detection of vessels used by organized crime that do not have tracking systems on board, for example, small fishing boats or those dedicated to trafficking illicit substances. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data can currently be processed from full catalogs on cloud servers (as Google Earth Engine) available to researchers who process vessel detection algorithms with optical or radar images. Today’s satellite SARs data that can be used for maritime surveillance include TerraSAR-X (Germany), Cosmo-SkyMed (Italy), Radarsat-2 (Canada), Alos-Palsar-2 (Japan), Kompsat-5 (Korea), Risat (India) and Sentinel-1 of European Space Agency (ESA, Europe). What sets Sentinel-1 apart from all these other systems is that it is routinely collecting images which are available for free due to the open data policy of the European Union (EU) Copernicus Program. This research seeks to develop a methodology that supports the detection of illegal marine vessels, such as small fishing boats or those dedicated to trafficking illicit drug substances, by using Sentinel-1 available SAR data, applied in a pilot area over the coastal regions of Pacific Colombian. By utilization of the Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) algorithm provided by Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) software from ESA, the rapid detection of ships is proven and thus provides sufficient results for a future implementation to support the combat of organized crime.