A New Automated Ship Wake Detector for Small and Go-Fast Ships in Sentinel-1 Imagery

In the field of maritime surveillance with satellite imagery, ship detection Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is largely successful exception those cases where target Cross Section (RCS) results very low and hard to detect. The paper presents an automatic algorithm that tackles problem in situations ship’s RCS not measurable but its wake is. At this purpose, proposed uses a combination image processing techniques order identify ships exclusively by detecting wakes they leave behind. Once identified through wake, position image, heading speed are determined. was developed, tested validated on SAR imagery from European Space Agency mission Sentinel-1; here presented discussed. total 43 images resulted rate 93% wakes’ components recognized more than 80% analysed.