Abstract
Maritime ships operating on-board illumination at night appear as point sources of light to highly sensitive low-light imagers on-board environmental satellites. Unlike city lights or lights from offshore gas platforms, whose locations remain stationary from one night to the next, lights from ships typically are ephemeral. Fishing boat lights are most prevalent near coastal cities and along the thermal gradients in the open ocean. Maritime commercial ships also operate lights that can be detected from space. Such observations have been made in a limited way via U.S. Department of Defense satellites since the late 1960s. However, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite, which carries a new Day/Night Band (DNB) radiometer, offers a vastly improved ability for users to observe commercial shipping in remote areas such as the Arctic. Owing to S-NPP’s polar orbit and the DNB’s wide swath (~3040 km), the same location in Polar Regions can be observed for several successive passes via overlapping swaths—offering a limited ability to track ship motion. Here, we demonstrate the DNB’s improved ability to monitor ships from space. Imagery from the DNB is compared with the heritage low-light sensor, the Operational Linescan System (OLS) on board the Defense Meteorological Support Program (DMSP) satellites, and is evaluated in the context of tracking individual ships in the Polar Regions under both moonlit and moonless conditions. In a statistical sense, we show how DNB observations of ship lights in the East China Sea can be correlated with seasonal fishing activity, while also revealing compelling structures related to regional fishery agreements established between various nations.
Highlights
The National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) is the first in a series of next-generation of polar orbiting environmental satellites, serving as risk reduction to the future Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) U.S operational program
We compare the capabilities of the DNB and the OLS for ship light detection, demonstrate the utility of this improved detection in the arena of operational support, and examine the research potential of these measurements in the context of gaining a statistical perspective on fishing activity over a given region, as well as adherence to international fishing agreements
We demonstrated in the previous section that even under moonlit conditions, the DNB has sufficient sensitivity to identify and notionally track ship lights
Summary
The National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) is the first in a series of next-generation of polar orbiting environmental satellites, serving as risk reduction to the future Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) U.S operational program. We compare the capabilities of the DNB and the OLS for ship light detection, demonstrate the utility of this improved detection in the arena of operational support, and examine the research potential of these measurements in the context of gaining a statistical perspective on fishing activity over a given region, as well as adherence to international fishing agreements. Through these examples, we aim to spur a reinvigoration of research in these areas based on the wealth of new information content present in the DNB observations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
