SPACE SHEPHERD. USING SPACE SYSTEMS TO SAVE HUMAN LIVES
The Mediterranean has always been considered an area of intense political, economic and cultural exchanges, but over the last decade it has also become a stage for intense migratory flow towards Europe. Following an exponential increase in the number of arrivals by sea, European institutions are searching for new solutions to reinforce the monitoring of the external borders of the European Union. However, this operation, which involves a vast geographic area, is complex and costly if performed exclusively using traditional means (ground radar, aircraft and sea vessels). Against this backdrop, the Space Shepherd research project has been responsible for a feasibility study of an integrated optical and radar system for the identification, monitoring and tracking of unknown vessels travelling in the Mediterranean Sea using data from optical and radar sensors hosted on satellites that are already operational. Beginning with a study of the migration phenomenon in the Mediterranean and analysis of the state-of-the-art ship detection ship detection techniques using ground observation data, a more efficient algorithm was developed to identify even very small vessels (10m), carefully combining high and medium resolution spatial optical and radar data. This data, which was acquired on different dates and in different areas, was processed using a broadly parallel procedure, which made it possible to identify the vessels using an automatic algorithm based on an object-based approach. A subsequent spatial analysis made it possible to estimate the position, direction, length and speed of the vessels identified.
The integration of the results with real data provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS) made it possible to validate the automatic estimates of length and direction and to distinguish between legal vessels and those of migrants.
Service
Remote sensing (analysis of satellite and aerial images)
Coordinator
Gianinetto Marco
Project group L@RS – ABCLab
Marco Gianinetto, Andrea Marchesi, Martina Aiello, Francesco Rota Nodari, Federico Frassy, Pieralberto Maianti
dABC role
Partner
Project start and end date
01/10/2014 – 31/12/2015
Client
Politecnico di Milano, Polisocial award (Grant Nr. T5E4RIST00)
Project lead
Francesco Topputo, DAER
Project partners
Polimi DAER, DEIB
Publications linked to the project
Topputo F., Massari M., Lombardi R., Gianinetto M., Marchesi A., Aiello M., Tebaldini S., Banda F., Space Shepherd: Search and Rescue of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea through Satellite Imagery, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2015), July 26-31, 2015, Milano, Italy.
Link researchgate
Topputo F., Massari M., Lombardi R., Gianinetto M., Marchesi A., Aiello M., Tebaldini S., Banda F., Space Shepherd: using space assets to monitor, track and search-and-rescue illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea, 66th International Astronautical Congress 2015, October 12-16, 2015, Jerusalem, Israel.
Topputo F., Massari M., Lombardi R., Gianinetto M., Marchesi A., Aiello M., Tebaldini S., Banda F., Politecnico di Milano Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali, SPACE SHEPHERD USING SPACE SYSTEMS TO SAVE HUMAN LIVES. Scientific Report – DSTA-SR 16-01 2016
Link re.public
Gianinetto M., Aiello M., Marchesi A., Francesco Topputo F., Massari M., Lombardi R., Banda F., OBIA ship detection with multispectral and SAR images: A simulation for Copernicus security applications, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2016) – Be doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2016.7729311
Link researchgate
Aiello M., Vezzoli R., Gianinetto M., “Object-based image analysis approach for vessel detection on optical and radar images,” J. Appl. Remote Sens. 13(1), 014502 (2019), doi: 10.1117/1.JRS.13.014502.
Aiello M., Gianinetto M., A combined use of multispectral and SAR images for ship detection and characterization through object based image analysis, Proceedings of the SPIE Remote Sensing Conference, 11-14 Settembre 2017, Varsavia, Polonia.
Gianinetto M., Aiello M., Marchesi A., Monitoraggio dei flussi migratori nel Mar Mediterraneo con satelliti ottici e SAR, VIII Convegno Nazionale AIT, 22-23-24 Giugno 2016, Palermo, Italia.