SHIP DETECTION USING HIGHRESOLUTION

SATELLITE IMAGERY ANDSPACEBASED AIS

TonjeNanetteHannevik
NorwegianDefence ResearchEst.(FFI)

Outline

AIS
AISSat1
Radarsatellites
SARandAIS
TheMalangentrial
Results
Tracking examples
Conclusions

Introduction
Increased shippingandfishing along the Norwegiancoast and
inthe BarentsSea
Spaceborne SARsince 1998 increase overview
Traditionally:Coarse resolution SARimagery
Recently:Spacebased AIS>Higher resolution SARdatafor
selected areasof interest
SAR:RADARSAT2,TerraSARX,CosmoSkyMed
Optical:Worldview1andGeoEye
Presentation:
Ship detection inhigh resolution imagery
Combined with spacebased andlandbased AIS

AIS
Anticollision system shipboard transponders
Passenger ships,cargoships over300grosstons,fishing
vessels >45m
Ships position,speed,heading,load,size andship type++
Landbased AIS:range40nautical miles
Satellitebased AIS:increases rangetremendously to
monitorNorways vastocean areasinthe HighNorth
VHF

VHF

VHF

Spaceborne AIS
FFIlaunched AISSat1with AIStransponderJuly12th2010
Receive AISsignalsinspace
Demonstration mission:vessel detection inwatersnorth of
ArcticCircle

Radarsatellites inorbit
Increasing number of SARsensors
Inorbit:
RADARSAT1andRADARSAT2
TerraSARX,TandemX
COSMOSkyMed 1,2,3and4
Military systems

Planned radarsatellites
Sentinel1AandSentinel1B
RADARSATConstellationMission
Military systems

RADARSAT2

Launched December 2007

Newopportunities forspaceborne monitoring of vessel
traffic andfishing activities
Betterresolution
Flexible look direction
Multiplepolarisation options
Quadpolarisation data:4imagesof sameareaindiff.pol.

SARandAIS
Complimentary
Combinationof AISandSARforsurveillance inremote
areas
AIS:identify vessels detected inSARimages
SAR:detect vessels notreporting through AIS

shipinfo.com

Malangentrialanddatacollection

Malangen:goodtestsite
Possiblewithmultipleobservationsofsameship
AISdatafromlandbasedandspacebasedAIS
September2010
Data:
4RADARSAT2StandardQuadPolimages
LandbasedAIS(aisonline.com)
SpacebasedAIS(AISSat1)
Time
#

Date

SAR

aisonline

AISSat-1

19/9

16:31

21/9

15:33

15:35

15:35 - 15:48

23/9

16:14

16:15

16:13 - 16:27

29/9

16:39

16:40

16:34 - 16:48

16:30 & 16:35 16:31 - 16:45

September19th
SAR:16:31
Aisonline.com:16:30&16:35
AISSat1:16:31 16:45
Ship
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Detections September 19th

AISSat-1
SAR
aisonline
Class,
detected?
Detected
OK
B, detected
Detected
OK
A, detected
Detected
OK
A, detected
Detected
OK
B, Detected
OK
A, Detected
OK
A, Detected
OK
A, Detected
OK
A, Land
OK
B, detected
Land
OK
B, -

September29th
SAR:16:39
Aisonline.com:16:40
AISSat1:16:34 16:48
Detections September 29th
Ship

SAR

aisonline
OK

Detected

Detected

Detected

Land, detected

OK
OK
OK

AISSat-1
Class, detected?
B, detected 4
times at 08:37
A, detected 3
times between
07:00-07:02
B, detected 2
times at 16:45
B, -

Whiteandgreen:AISSat1
Black:SAR

Tracking ships
AISSat1:new opportunity totrack ships notwithin the 40
nautical miles rangeof the landbased AIS
Example 1:Muddr080detected using SARSeptember19th and
23rd
ShipdetectedseveraltimesfromAISSat1

Muddr080
Detected 35timesbyAISSat1between 17/912:45and
23/919:38 in2010

Quadpolarised data signatures of

tracked ship high incidence angle

VV
HV

VH
HH

Ships,landandsea
SAR2DimageandSAR3Damplitudeimage

Tracked ship
Tracked ship

Tracking of VladimirTikhonov 24/1110to18/612

Tracking of VladimirThikanov
NorthEastPassage:20/811to7/911

Discussion missed detections

AISSat1passesfromsouth>saturation NorthSea/BalticSea
Signalsarrivingattheantennaatthesametime(messagecoll.)
Butpartofpassshouldbeunaffected

Received messages 19/9/2010

Achieved performance
no messages received forthe first89minutes
Effective passduration reduced from15min.to67min.
PercentageofallreceivedmessagesbyAISSat1asa
functionoftimeintothepassat16:30 16:46
Percentageofallmessagesreceived

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1

10

Minutesintopass

11

12

13

14

15

16

Simulated results forsimilar passgeometry

Discrepancy notalone because of:
Noships inthe areainthe beginning (lastslide9/19)
Large#of ships inNorthSeaandBaltic
PercentageofallreceivedmessagesbyAISSat1
insimulationasafunctionoftimeintothepass
at16:22 16:386/8/2011
Percentageofallreceivedmessages

0.2
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0

Minutesintopass

10

11

12

13

14

15 More

Discussions missed detections

Relationship between incr.performance anddecr.landarea
Malangenareaclose toland
Interference fromlandbased reuse of AISfrequencies 1and2that are also
usedon AISSat1
Signalcollisions prob.of det.decreases

Fjordsaround Troms elevation anglesmall inbeginning of pass

Nolineof sight duetohigh mountains (beg.andendof pass) further
reducing the effective passduration

HighmountainsmakesshadowsforAISSat1inMalangen area

Discussion missed detections

Vulnerableforreducedeffectivepassduration:
ClassBshipssendAISsignalsusinglowerpowerandlessfrequent
thanClassAships
Shipsatporttransmitsmessagesatalowerrate>harderto
detectfromspaceduetolowertransmitrate&limitedtimein
satellitesfieldofview

AISequipment notinstalled properly onboard ships

Conclusions sumof challenges

Detectionprobabilityinasinglepassvariesconsiderably
Eveninalowtrafficarea(closetoland!)suchasthe
northofNorway
AISSat1performancevarieswiththesatelliteantenna
pointingconfiguration
AISSat1 stillinitscommissioningphase(duringtrial)
Noactiveantennacontrol
Nowantennacontrolispossible betterperformanceinfuturetrials

Overtime:shipdetectionprobabilityincreasesgreatly
tracking
SpacebasedAIShaslargerprobabilitytodetectshipsinthe
openoceanareasthanclosetothecoast

Conclusions
Ships reported byaisonline.comare detected inSARimages
(except ships close tolandorvery small ships <10m)
Tracking examples shown using AISSat1
Satellitebased AISincreases AISrangetremendously cover
larger ocean areas
Important forNorwaywith vastocean areas

Spacebased AISlarger prob.todetect ships inopen ocean

areasduetolower number of messages andinterference
AISSat1stillincommisioning phase
AISSat1firstgeneration technology demonstrator focus on
the Norwegianareasinthe HighNorth

NORAIS,AISSat2andAISSat3
NORAIS
Now on InternationalSpaceStation

AISSat2

Identical designasAISSat1
Flightmodel isfinished
Environmental testswill bedone
Increased coverage andbackup
Launch 3rdor4thquarterof 2013?

AISSat3
Betterreceiver
Next generation AISsatellite
Another payload aswell on the satellite?

Aknowledgements
AISdata courtesyofNorwegianCoastal
Administration:aisonline.comoperatedby
ChristianMichelsenResearch(CMR)
ThankstotheNorwegianSpaceCentrefor
sponsoringAISSat1