Near real-time Maritime Monitoring  (03.02.2009)

 Oil pollution – a global environmental challenge
The extent of illegal discharges from ships is a big environmental problem in the world today, and its growing.  The oil spills posts grave danger for birds and wildlife, some especially vulnerable like migrating birds.  There is also a substantial risk of economic loss caused by costly clean-up operations and a reduced income from tourism.
The keyword when it comes to monitoring oil spills is time. Time is crucial both for catching the polluters but most importantly for timely alerts, damage-control and clean-up operations to be effective.
KSAT uses satellite based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, which can provide extensive coverage of the earth’s surface in a short time, independent of weather and light conditions, and has therefore become one of the most important sensors for operational monitoring of the marine environment. 

KSAT has developed a highly sophisticated service. And supplies full analysis and report in less than 30 minutes in European  areas today.

Global oil spill detection from the top of the world
By state-of-the-art technology and experienced operators Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) provides satellite based monitoring and rapid reports of illegal discharges and accidental oil spills at sea, with a 30 minutes time-limit in Europe, on average 200 analyzed scenes per month.
The KSAT oil spill detection service has been developed through 16 years and the service available today is a result from long term national Norwegian and international investments in developing a service strongly tailored to the end-user needs.
Our integrated position with satellite owners, the amount of satellites we operate, the unique location close to both poles, our highly skilled personnel and infrastructure has made our services highly efficient.

EMSA  and Clean Sea Net
KSAT, with partners Telespazio (Italy) and EDISOFT (Portugal), provides a Pan-European service to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), covering  European waters and providing  EU Member States with satellite -based monitoring and rapid reports of illegal discharges and accidental oil spills at sea, with a 30 minutes time-limit.
For a more effective monitoring European pollution control authorities are planning their other surveillance activities, dedicated aircraft equipped with radar (SLAR) and IR/UV scanner and coastguard vessels, in conjunction with the ordered satellite acquisitions. This helps to optimize the use of coastguard vessels and surveillance aircrafts, producing a more effective, also cost effective, surveillance plan.

Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR)

SAR is an advanced satellite sensor that sends microwavestowards the earth`s surface and recieves the signals reflected from the surface underneath, called backscatter.  Oil and oil-like features are detectable with SAR because of the oils dampening  effect on  ripples and capillary waves.  All signals will be then be reflected away from the radar, and oil will appear in the image as black areas.
These radar satellites are able to observe features and objects on the sea surface both at night time through cloudy and foggy conditions. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) information for ships can be fully integrated with the satellite images, a powerful tool in the effort of identifying the potential source and catching the polluter while still within the extended economic zone (EEZ).

KSAT satellite based oil spill monitoring

• Covering large areas effectively
• Operating independently of light and weather conditions
• Rapid response- reducing possible environmental and economic impacts

 

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