Software and technological complex of identification of sea vessels based on the use of radar space images Sentinel 1

Abstract

The paper considers the problem of using images from SAR satellites for the identification of seagoing vessels. It describes the main functions of software and technological complex of the automated monitoring. The system is operated with utilizing space images of SAR satellites Sentinel 1A (B). The algorithmic part, which implements the detection on the sea surface the marks associated with ships, is described in details. To reduce the impact of speckle-noise, the image is pre-processed with the improved Lee-filter. Further processing lies in using an adaptive threshold algorithm that provides detection for each local background fragment of the image the unusually bright pixels, at the same time the algorithm provides a constant probability of error. By solving a nonlinear equation, for each position of the background window the algorithm finds the threshold brightness value and then all pixels above this value are considered vessels. In advance the evaluation of parameters of statistical distribution of pixels’ brightness is performed for each position of the background window. K-mean is used for such distribution. The selected bright pixels are combined into compact groups and their size and coordinates are being determined. The obtained results are compared with the data of the AIS, Automatic Identification System of ships, and the results are displayed on a cartographic basis.