Space shepherd: Search and rescue of illegal immigrants in the mediterranean sea through satellite imagery

Topputo, Francesco; Massari, Mauro; Lombardi, Riccardo; Gianinetto, Marco; Marchesi, Andrea; Aiello, Martina; Tebaldini, Stefano; Banda, Francesco

doi:10.1109/igarss.2015.7326917

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Some authors focused also on the combination of geometrical features and spectral signatures of the target objects (Burgess, 1993, Corbane et al, 2008, Corbane et al, 2008, Corbane et al, 2010, Dekker et al, 2013, Pegler et al, 2003, Topputo et al, 2015), or they used only spectral features in order to extract possible vessels from the image (Kanjir et al, 2014, Wu et al, 2011). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vessel detection and classification from spaceborne optical images: A literature survey

Kanjir

Greidanus

Oštir

2018

Remote Sensing of Environment

218

147

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vessel detection and classification from spaceborne optical images: A literature survey

Kanjir

Greidanus

Oštir

2018

Remote Sensing of Environment

218

147

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“…In this way, optical remote sensing plays an important role in vessel detection. Specifically, very highresolution multispectral imagery is useful in detecting very small ships and estimating their shape and route [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting migrant vessels in the Cyprus region using Sentinel-1 SAR data

Melillos

Themistocleous

Danezis

et al. 2020

Counterterrorism, Crime Fighting, Forensics, and Surveillance Technologies IV

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Remote sensing is considered as an increasingly important technology for maritime surveillance. The process of maritime surveillance for safety is critical for every country. The need for information on migrant movements by sea using different sizes and types of vessels is of paramount significance. Such information is essential for the search and rescue (SaR) operations of unauthorised migrants. The aim of this paper is to show how to detect migrant vessels in the Cyprus Region using freely available Sentinel-1 SAR data. The comparison was made using open source available migrant data and Sentinel-1 SAR acquisitions. Sentinel-1 SAR images were used to investigate three Areas of Interest (AoI). The main AoI is located at the Northwest coasts, whilst the second area includes the Southeast coasts of Cyprus. The results indicate that the Sentinel-1 SAR data can provide decisionmakers with effective results and spatial information on migration routes.

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“…State-of-the-art high resolution SAR data and methods from Polarimetry (e.g., [7][8][9]), sublook analysis (e.g., [10,11]), along-track interferometry (ATI; e.g., [12][13][14]), displaced phase center antenna (DPCA; e.g., [13,15]) or moving target indication (MTI; e.g., [16][17][18]) were tested with success in a broad variety of projects and applications. A number of recent international high-level research projects, such as SAGRES [19], Space Shepherd [20] and NEREIDS [21] included the objective of automatically detecting small, non-metallic maritime targets. SAGRES especially deserves attention, since a seven meter long rubber boat was successfully identified with SAR imagery from RADARSAT-2, leading to the rescue of 38 in-distress migrants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The InflateSAR Campaign: Evaluating SAR Identification Capabilities of Distressed Refugee Boats

et al. 2020

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Most of the recent research in the field of marine target detection has been concentrating on ships with large metallic parts. The focus of this work is on much more challenging targets represented by small rubber inflatables. They are of importance, since in recent years they have largely been used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Europe. The motivation of this research is to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis at Europe’s southern borders. These boats, packed with up to 200 people, are in no way suitable to cross the Mediterranean Sea or any other big water body and are in distress from the moment of departure. The establishment of a satellite-based surveillance infrastructure could considerably support search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea, reduce the number of such boats being missed and mitigate the ongoing death in the open ocean. In this work we describe and analyze data from the InflateSAR acquisition campaign, wherein we gathered multiple-platform SAR imagery of an original refugee inflatable. The test site for this campaign is a lake which provides background clutter that is more predictable. The analysis considered a sum of experiments, enabling investigations of a broad range of scene settings, such as the vessel’s orientation, superstructures and speed. We assess their impact on the detectability of the chosen target under different sensor parameters, such as polarimetry, resolution and incidence angle. Results show that TerraSAR-X Spotlight and Stripmap modes offer good capabilities to potentially detect those types of boats in distress. Low incidence angles and cross-polarization decrease the chance of a successful identification, whereas a fully occupied inflatable, orthogonally oriented to the line of sight, seems to be better visible than an empty one. The polarimetric analyses prove the vessel’s different polarimetric behavior in comparison with the water surface, especially when it comes to entropy. The analysis considered state-of-the-art methodologies with single polarization and dual polarization channels. Finally, different metrics are used to discuss whether and to which extent the results are applicable to other open ocean datasets. This paper does not introduce any vessel detection or classification algorithm from SAR images. Rather, its results aim at paving the way to the design and the development of a specially tailored detection algorithm for small rubber inflatables.

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Space shepherd: Search and rescue of illegal immigrants in the mediterranean sea through satellite imagery

Cited by 6 publications

References 4 publications

Vessel detection and classification from spaceborne optical images: A literature survey

Vessel detection and classification from spaceborne optical images: A literature survey

Detecting migrant vessels in the Cyprus region using Sentinel-1 SAR data

The InflateSAR Campaign: Evaluating SAR Identification Capabilities of Distressed Refugee Boats

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