Abstract:
An efficient and inexpensive service has been developed for
the monitoring of fishing vessels in West Africa using Earth
Observation (EO) data. The service makes use of fast-
delivery data from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
instrument on Sentinel-1 and the Multi Spectral Imager
(MSI) on Sentinel-2, detecting objects that differ markedly
from their immediate background using a constant false
alarm rate (CFAR) test. The selected objects are then
discounted from further analysis if they fall within the
bespoke land mask or can be shown from time series
analysis to be static (signals associated with jetties, oil
platforms and "ghost objects" arising from very bright land
targets). Detections are matched to, and verified by, AIS
data, which provides location and dimensions of ships that
are legally in the region. Both matched and un-matched data
are then displayed on a web portal for use by the Gulf of
Guinea (GoG) state authorities.
