Feasibility of Sentinel-1 data for enhanced maritime safety and situational awareness

摘要

The BONUS ESABALT (Enhanced Situational Awareness to Improve Maritime Safety in the Baltic) project is a feasibility study of an integrated system for enhancing maritime safety, which incorporates the latest technological advances in positioning, e-Navigation, Earth observation (EO) systems, and multi-channel cooperative communications and user-driven crowdsourcing techniques. One of the core tasks of the ESABALT project is to assess the feasibility of integration of the state-of-the-art EO products, such as Sentinel-1 data, into the situational awareness platform. The objective of this article is to review alternative approaches and design system concepts based on the use of Sentinel-1 data in the experimental ESABALT maritime situational awareness system. First, the required steps to transform Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to value added data aiding navigation, situational awareness and maritime safety will be described. Second, the feasibility of two alternative methods for integrating SAR data to ESABALT system is assessed. The outcome of the study indicates that modern-day SAR data can be included into a maritime navigational system, which would clearly improve maritime situational awareness and safety. For its contributions to maritime safety in the Baltic Sea, ESABALT was awarded the status of Flagship Project under the EU Strategy for Baltic Sea Region's Policy Area on Maritime Safety and Security (PA SAFE) in August 2015.