Optical Satellite Services for EMSA (OpSSERVE) - Near Real-time Detection of Vessels and Activities
Müller, Rupert¹; Berg, Matthias¹; Kiefl, Ralph¹; Lechner, Konstanze¹; Reize, Tanja¹; Máttyus, Gellért Sándor¹; Schwarz, Egbert¹; Twele, André¹; Casey, Simon²; Ellis, George²; Flingelli, Christine²; Kornhoff, Ansgar²; Simon, Edith^2
1German Aerospace Center, GERMANY; ²European Space Imaging (EUSI), GERMANY

On behalf of EMSA (European Maritime Safety Agency), image data provider EUSI (European Space Imaging) and the EOC (Earth Observation Center) at DLR (German Aerospace Center) have established a fully operational near real-time service for detecting vessels and vessel activities using very high resolution optical satellite imagery. The rapid access to satellite data and derived information is requested by EMSA to support maritime situational awareness, e.g. reducing the risk of maritime accidents, marine pollution from ships and the loss of human life at sea. Satellite data from six systems - namely Worldview-1, Worldview-2, Quickbird, GeoEye-1, IKONOS and EROS-B - with ground sampling distances below 1 m (pan and pan-sharpened images) form the basis for near real-time image delivery in less than one hour to EMSA. In addition, value adding services are provided to aid EMSA in delivering timely information on vessel locations and activities to EU member states. Value added services use a semi-automatic operational procedure to deliver results within one and half hours of image acquisition. The highly parallel processing chain includes image preparation (e.g. systematic correction, orthorectification), data transcription, automatic vessel detection, GUI based interactive vessel detection and refinement as well as activity identification. Standardized products are delivered to EMSA. In this presentation an overview of the OpSSERVE service (Optical Satellite Service for EMSA) and its near real-time processing chain is given.