First Analyses of Sentinel-1 Images for Maritime Surveillance

Sentinel-1 is the European Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operational since 3 October 2014. The SAR’s characteristics should make it suitable for maritime surveillance (ship detection), and it will routinely collect a large amount of maritime imagery over European and global seas. After its launch in April 2014, preliminary data have been made available to limited users in the satellite’s commissioning phase, and since the start of the operational phase data are available to the general public. These early data have been used to assess the quality of Sentinel-1 images and their suitability for ship detection. This was partly done by using the JRC’s ship detection software SUMO, after adaptation to ingest and process Sentinel-1 data. It is found that the sensor lives up to its specifications, thereby making it very useful for maritime surveillance thanks to its combination of wide swath and low noise at the medium resolution with which it will mostly be operated (“IW” and “EW” modes). Front cover: Part of Sentinel-1 image of the Gulf of Riga, SM mode, VH polarisation green, VV polarisation blue. Taken 22 June 2014 during the commissioning phase when the system was still being tuned.