Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 21 Government maritime stakeholders need to leverage new and emerging technolo- gies to improve persistent, prompt, and accurate ship detection, identification, and tracking. To these ends, several technologies hold significant promise for improving MDA, namely commercial Earth Observation (EO) systems, vast quantities of open- source data, and current trends in big data analytics. Commercial space-based EO data Commercially available EO data shows great promise in improving overall MDA. Combining S-AIS data with space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (S-SAR) data has already been shown to improve MDA. SAR satellites are known for their ability to image large swaths of the oceans, and can "see" day and night, through clouds, and during inclement weather. Canada is at the forefront of space-based MDA. Data provided by Canada's RADARSAT-2 sat- ellite is routinely used to characterize sea ice, improve ship and wake detection, discriminate icebergs from ships, provide pollution monitoring, and estimate wind and sea states. However, SAR satellites are few in num- bers and hence lack persistence. But as constellations grow, so do area coverage and revisit rates. The key strength of SAR sensors is their ability to detect non-coop- erative vessels, namely those not transmit- ting on AIS or not self-reporting through other means, making it the gold standard for vessel detection. Although Canada's RadarSat Constellation Mission is not a commercial asset, its capability to conduct MDA is poised to dramatically change our understanding of global ocean traffic as we know it. Similarly, large optical systems (e.g. Digi- tal Globe) have already demonstrated their utility for MDA. They bring a data set that complements other information sources and helps build a much more comprehen- sive understanding of vessels and other ob- jects of interest. The Earth observation explosion There are hundreds of optical SmallSats planned for launch in the next decade. As examples, Planet (Terra Bella / Skybox14) currently has a constellation of over 200 optical satellites in orbit, BlackSky Global plans for a constellation of 60 optical, 1m resolution satellites by 2020, and China's JiLin plans to launch 60 optical satellites by 2020 (16 of them between 2018-2019) and 137 by 2030. These large constella- tions of small optical satellites could dra- matically transform the nature of Maritime Domain Awareness. These systems will provide excellent timeliness, some claiming revisit rates as low as 10 minutes – and may (in effect) enable near-continuous, tacti- cally-relevant coverage for MDA decision making, despite the current limitations im- posed by daylight and local weather condi- tions. Traditionally, S-SAR systems are not clas- sified as Smallsats; however, the initiative by ICEYE to develop small EO radar sat- ellites has the potential of transforming the MDA world. If they are successful, large constellations of radar satellites that can operate effectively at all times could pro- vide literally continuous coverage of vessels of interest – an asset never before seen in MDA systems. Other entrances into the commercial SAR arena include companies such as Capella Space, with a planned con- stellation of 36 S-SAR satellites. Evaluation of electro-optical (including infrared and hyperspectral sensors), com- bined with S-AIS and S-SAR data, are of particular interest because the addition of electro-optical information is expected to greatly reduce false alarms, improve ship classification and identification, as well as improve pollution monitoring, detection of hazards to shipping, wakes, and small vessels (including those from thermal sig- natures). In addition to traditional single-sensor missions, the near future may see multi- sensor and integrated mission concepts transforming MDA, with Canadian compa- nies leading the way. For example, North- Star is in the planning stages of developing a 40-satellite constellation hosting both hy- perspectral and infrared sensors. Urthecast plans to launch a 16-satellite constellation of optical and multi-band radar sensors us- ing two orbital planes. Both of these sys- tems promise to provide unique capabilities for MDA. However, space-based MDA does not end with satellites and the data they pro- duce. Valuable MDA data is available through a plethora of open sources, and vast amounts of data need to be integrated into a coherent MDA picture. Open data sources Open data is any data that can be freely used, reused, and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share alike. Open data sources (such as social media) may also be able to provide the information necessary to im- prove MDA. Mobile applications are being developed to allow and encourage private citizens to monitor AIS feeds and report il- legal fishing and other suspicious maritime activities to the local authorities. Open data can be a significant source of information to maritime authorities. It can assist in framing the operational picture by revealing suspicious activities, behaviours of interest, and nascent or evolving situations. It can also serve as valuable information, im- agery, and audio reporting to corroborate and/or reconcile initial reports. Examples of this could be YouTube videos of fishing in protected zones or Facebook postings of improper hazardous waste disposal. Sources of open data need to be evalu- ated for their possible contribution to im- proving MDA. To date, the use of open data sources has not been looked at in a systematic way. Research and analysis of the utility of open source data as a means of improving MDA shows much promise. The unstructured nature of this data makes its integration particularly challenging. Meth- ods of ingesting, validating, and fusing these sources into one useful and effective MDA data feed is an area of important, yet nascent, research. Big data analytics Big Data is often characterised as large in volume, is collected and distributed at high

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