c-sigma article march-april 2011

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By Guy Thomas, science and technology advisor,

U.S. Coast Guard (www.uscg.mil), Washington, D.C.

f oil is the worlds lifeblood, then oceanic commerce

is its backbone. Since the 9/11 attack on the United

States, many national and international organizations

have addressed how to protect their maritime assets

individually and collectively. Recent events, such asthe sea-borne attack on Mumbai, and the growing realiz

tion that piracy plagues several areas of the world have

reiterated the need for heightened maritime vigilance.

Theres also a growing realization that misuse of the

oceans can lead to signicant environmental damage and

loss of natural resources.

The potential contributions of space-based Earth

observation systems to global maritime awareness

are of growing interest to the worlds naval forces. Its

widely recognized that no one country or even an exist-

ing coalition of countries has the stature, breadth and

depth to protect oceanic commerce and the maritime

environment. It will take international collaboration

and cooperation on an unparalleled scale to assure thesafe, secure use of the worlds oceans (see Collaboration

Will Enable Global Maritime Awareness, page 12). The

greatest need, as well as the greatest opportunities for

international collaboration, is to

focus on the technology required

to detect, identify and track vessel

well offshore.

Collection SystemsThe types of sensors currently

within ports and in coastal areas,

such as radars, various types of

cameras and self-reporting sys-

tems, are well known. Acoustic

sensors and other nontraditional

sensors, such as the passive coher

ent location sensor, which exploit

the reections of the emissions of

non-radar transmitters to deter-

mine an objects location, also hav

roles. However, the need to detect

identify and track vessels well off-

M/PIL 2011 2011 Earthwide ommunications LL, www.eijournal.com10

Homeland SecurityHomeland SecurityEarth observation satellites mmajor role in effective maritim

IIU.S.

NavyphotobyMassommu

nicationSpecialist2ndlassMarkLogico

To achieve global maritime awareness,collaboration is key.


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shore can best be accomplished by space-based Earth observation

systems, many of which already exist commercially.

There are at least four basic types of space-based systemssix if

you include weather and navigation spacecraftthat must be inte-

grated for effective results. Two of the four employ imaging sensors:

Synthetic aperture radar satellites (SARsats)

Electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging satellites

The other two are based on communications systems: Individual transponders, which can send formatted short mes-

sages, linked to a communications satellite

Automatic Identication System (AIS), which was designed

for collision avoidance but often is used as a primary ship

identication and tracking system

SARsatsThe Canadian government currently operates two SARsats in

a public-private partnership with McDonald, Dettwiler & Associ-

ates (http://gs.mdacorporation.com ). It launched the rst one,

RADARSAT, in 1996. A more capable system, RADARSAT 2,

was launched in late 2007. Canada is expected to launch an ad-

ditional three to six radar satellites within the next decade. These

systems operate in ve basic modes and, at low resolution, havewide sensor swaths. Most, if not all, of the coming SARsats will be

equipped with AIS receivers.

Germany, Italy and Israel also have launched radar satellites,and several other countries are moving that way. On June 21, 2010,

the Germans launched TanDEM-X, a second radar vehicle to y in

formation with the rst TerraSAR-X launched in June 2007. Italys

COSMO-SkyMed system has four operating satellites, launched

between June 2007 and November 2010. TecSAR, the rst Israeli

satellite to feature SAR technology, was launched Jan. 21, 2008.

Each of these satellites carries a SAR sensor that can see

through cloud cover and detect vessels and their wakes day or

night. These commercial radar satellites represent a signicant

improvement over previous commercial radar systems, including

images with resolutions as good as 1 meter and special collection

methods that can vary the polarization of the energy their sensors

transmit to the ground. This permits image collection in differ-

ent polarizations simultaneously, which can characterize Earths

surface structure in interesting new ways.

EO/IR Imaging SatellitesMany countries and companies operate EO/IR satellites. Their

capabilities have expanded to the point where even a layman can,

in many instances, look at one of their images and immediately

recognize a specic building and which types of carstrucks,

sedans, convertibles, etc.are parked in its lots. DigitalGlobe

(www.digitalglobe.com ) and GeoEye (www.geoeye.com), the major

U.S.-based commercial satellite providers that pioneered this

signicantly improved capability, receive a bulk of their operating

budgets from U.S. military customers. Both companies have built

11M/PIL 2011 2011 Earthwide ommunications LL, www.eijournal.com

The need to detect, identify and track

vessels well offshore can best be

accomplished by space-based Earth

observation systems, many of which

already exist commercially.

IKONOS acquireda high-resolutionsatellite image ofthe supertanker M/VSirius Star, which washijacked by Somalipirates on Nov. 15,2008.

GeoEye

tarts at Seatarts at Seaay aareness.

RADARSAT 2 offers effective large-area surveillance, detecting vessels as small as 15-20meters (shown in yellow).


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sophisticated constellations of high-resolution (1 mete

better) Earth imaging satellites, providing intraday revi

around the globe. Israels ImageSat International (www

imagesatintl.com) offers similar capabilities.

Spot Image (www.spotimage.com), now branded as

GEO-Information Services division of Astrium, offers a

multisource, multiresolution portfolio of imagery prod

ucts and services. The Spot 6-7 optical satellites under

development will deliver 1.5-meter ortho images and

guarantee mission continuity to clients worldwide. Thrst launch is planned for 2012. In addition, the Pliad

1 and 2 satellites are scheduled to launch at the end of

2011 and mid-2012, respectively. Operated by Astrium

GEO-Information Services, they'll provide 50-cm color

products.

Recently, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (www

sstl.co.uk) announced plans to build and launch three

Earth observation spacecraft by 2013 and to set up as a

commercial Earth observation company. The imaging

capabilities of the satellite constellation will be 1-mete

panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral. RapidEye

(www.rapideye.de) offers a similar small satellite const

lation that was largely built by Surrey, but it receives t

benet of a public-private partnership with the Germa

Aerospace Center.

TranspondersOwners of shing vessels and mobile platforms acti

ly track their assets with communication transponder

ellite systems. For example, shing vessels must be ab

to prove they didnt go into restricted waters. Tugboat

heavy equipment companies need to be able to track th

assets on a near-hourly basis for business purposes. Ma

other companies also employ these self-reporting syste

for valid business, security and/or safety reasons.

Space-Based AISThe International Maritime Organization and the

International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation

and Lighthouse Authorities designed AIS to identify an

locate vessels by electronically exchanging data with

other nearby ships and vessel trafc service stations. O

April 28, 2008, Canadian company COM DEV Inter-

national (www.comdev.ca) launched a space-based AIS

nanosatellite designed to detect AIS signals from space

Prior to that, the U.S. Coast Guard funded the develop

ment of a capable AIS collector onboard an ORBCOMM

(www.orbcomm.com) communications satellite. Space

Quest (www.spacequest.com) also has launched space-

M/PIL 2011 2011 Earthwide ommunications LL, www.eijournal.com12

The worlds maritime nations, working together, can make the seas safer

and more secure from wrongdoers, be they smugglers, polluters or pirates. A

primary step would be to create a global space partnership initially focused

on the maritime domain, a concept referred to as a Collaboration in Space forInternational Global Maritime Awareness (C-SIGMA). Such a concept has been

discussed informally for years by experts who recognize the critical vulnerabili-

ties of our maritime assets and the potential economic impacts from their loss.

Effective maritime domain awareness would encompass coastal and harbor

surveillance and warning to persistent and pervasive surveillance of the broad

ocean area. To achieve maritime domain awareness goals, satellites could be

used to openly survey the worlds oceans to establish normal patterns of behav-

ior for shipping and boating worldwide.

For example, the operational cycle of the system might begin with the

tasking of one of a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites to

collect data from wide-area search mode and then switch to a spotlight mode

to rene the attributes of any targets. A second SAR satellite may be tasked

on the y to conduct more ne-grain surveillance before a third or fourth

satellite, equipped with optical sensors operating in the visible or infrared or

hyperspectral bands, conducts a fourth, fth or greater collect on the same

target. Information from an automatic identication system (AIS) collected via

satellite also could be ltered into the analysis to identify the vessel and other

nearby vessels.

In addition, ship information compiled from unclassied sources and

pertinent to the area under observation could be scoured for supporting

information, such as long-range identication and tracking and terrestrial AIS

reporting systems and/or other corroborating information gathered from ter-

restrial unclassied sources. If deemed appropriate, and weather permitting, ahigh-resolution imaging satellite could be tasked to image the correct spot in

the ocean. The image could be processed to further determine a ships loca-

tion, course, speed, and status.

The C-SIGMA stumbling blocks relate more to policy rather than technology

challenges, but theres denitely a need for better surveillance systems and more

of them. Theres also a need to process, fuse, analyze, display and disseminate all

available data; make accurate decisions; and interdict any suspicious vessel before

it enters port or approaches anything of value. C-SIGMA is a paradigm shift, as,

until recently, few nations have considered space systems within this framework.

Steps in this direction include an international exploratory workshop, which will be

hosted by the European Space Agency June 21-24 in Frascati, Italy, to examine

how such a concept might be enacted.

Views of the Seattle-Vancouver area show how satellite AIS (left) augmenterrestrial data (right).

SpaceQuest

Collaboration Will EnableGlobal Maritime Awareness

MD


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based AIS collectors. The ini-

tial results of these efforts are

promising, and all three com-

panies are planning additional

capabilities. Currently there are

eight AIS-equipped commercial

satellites on orbit, with many

more being planned.

Ground Segments

What to do with all of thesedata?

Canada has developed its own

ship-detection software called Ocean

Suite, and various satellite processors have

been designed to complement each other

to optimize ship-detection performance.

The European community is working

to leverage its resources. The two latest

COSMO-SkyMed SAR satellites are to be

part of the future Multinational Space-

based Imaging System, which will combine

the resources and space assets of Italy,

Belgium, Greece, Germany, France and

Spain, and other European countries may

join. The rest of the space-faring world has

taken note, and discussions are under way

in several locales.

A large player in maritime awareness

for U.S. civilian space is the Center for

Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote

Sensing (CSTARS) at the University of

Miami. In cooperation with Vexcel

(www.vexcel.com ), CSTARS developed

OceanView, a software program that

rapidly analyzes any commercial imaging

system to determine if there were vessels

imaged. The software can generally tell

the size, type, course and speed of any

vessel imaged from civilian spaceborne

satellite systems. Similarly, AstriumGEO-Information Services OceanWay

service monitors maritime activity in a

given zone using radar and optical satellite

imagery.

CSTARS and other organizations are

taking steps to improve image process-

ing, with better denition and timeliness.

CSTARS also hopes to gain additional ac-

cess points by establishing mobile down-

link sites in places such as the Azores

and the western United States. This is

important, because the timeliness of the

reporting is dictated by the time between

data collection and its downlink to an

Earth station for processing and reporting.

Maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) are

another part of the mix. Many countries

operate MPAs, and some countries have

more than one organization operating

them. For example, in the United States,

the Navy and Coast

Guard have MPAs,

and the Depart-ment of Homeland

Securitys Customs

and Border Protec-

tion (CBP) compo-

nent operates a eet

of highly modied

P-3 xed-wing

aircraft with superb

ocean-surveillance

capabilities. All

three organizations

are in the process

of installing AIS-

collection capabilityinto these aircraft.

This could provide

a paradigm shift in

the way other U.S.

aircraft are outtted for maritime surveil-

lance. Many other technologies also are

being considered, from medium- and

high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles,

such as Predator B/Mariner and Global

Hawk, to manned and unmanned

airships.

No one system can do it all, but a judi-

cious mix of the aforementioned systems

and others should allow partner nations

to detect, identify, track and interdict

nearly all vessels that approach their

coasts. Indeed, theres no silver bullet,

but international collaboration among

countries with space-based systems is the

key to success.

13M/PIL 2011 2011 Earthwide ommunications LL, www.eijournal.com

Theres no silver bullet, but

international collaboration

among countries with

space-based systems is

the key to success.

OceanWay uses optical and radar data to detect vessels and work against illegal martimeactivity, such as smuggling, pirating, illegal fishing and oil dumping.

c-sigma article march-april 2011

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