Near real-time vessel detection and maritime monitoring

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) can extend out as far as 200 nautical miles from the coastline. It has no physical borders or controls. How can you monitor and respond more rapidly to suspicious or illegal activity?

Whether you are responsible for national security, regulating fisheries, or environmental protection--you need scalable clarity in as close to real-time as possible. Maxar Vessel Detection Services (VDS) delivers the insights and data to help you identify maritime traffic and monitor activity within and just outside your areas of interest.

Maxar VDS monitors, downlinks, processes, and delivers data under four hours for timely assessment and response.

Near real-time coverage

Our global network of ground stations and advanced SAR satellite technology enables us to deliver updated and actionable data within minutes or hours.

Clarity through weather and at night

Weather can impose challenges to aerial imagery collection and optical clarity. RADARSAT-2 can collect and detect through clouds as well as at night.

Vessel detection and data

Land-based systems and cooperative devices have their limit. Only Maxar can locate and monitor movement of any vessel from 5 to 20 meters, regardless of AIS status.

IUU Fishing

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Ecuador contains about 283,561 sq km in landmass, but the country’s EEZ covers 1,150,000 sq km between its coastal waters and the surrounding EEZ across the Galapagos Archipelago.

Naval and other agencies are responsible for monitoring and protecting these open waters to prevent illegal fishing, bilge dumping, or other activities such as smuggling.

RADARSAT-2 collected the entire Galapagos Archipelago within one week, identifying good actors and detecting dark targets.

RADARSAT-2 collects three extents in one pass on May 4th.

RADARSAT-2 collects three more extents in one pass on May 7th.

RADARSAT-2 collects final extent on May 10th.

Narrowing the search

Identifying suspect vessels

SAR (synthetic aperture radar) detects any vessel >20m, this helps to detect all potential vessels of interest regardless of AIS. Maxar VDS then matches its data with AIS data to determine good actors from dark targets.

Authorities use this information to determine which dark targets are of interest and plan the best-fit strategy for inspection.

Illegal Oil Dumping

Linhares, Brazi

High traffic shipping routes can make it difficult to discern which vessel is responsible for an oil spill or illegal bilge dumping.

Here, right outside Linhares, Maxar SAR capabilities detected an oil spill. By using our Vessel Detection Service, we can collect evidence to determine which vessel is likely responsible.

In one pass, this SAR extent shows all detected ships within the vicinity of the oil spill.

The vessel closest to the oil spill is detected here. Using AIS data, the vessel identity can be verified. SAR technology detects surface reflectance, which allows it to detect ships, chemicals, and other debris.

By leveraging AIS tracking data, the route of the vessel in question can be retraced and correlated with the oil spill.

Building evidence

The polyline seen here indicates the route of the target. It suggests that the vessel turned its AIS beacon off during the oil spill.

Our SAR image provides further evidence that the vessel in question is the responsible party, as it corresponds with the AIS data.

Transshipments

East Sea near North Korea

In this region, North Korea’s East Sea EEZ lies between Russian and South Korean zones. Since North Korea relies on transshipments to bypass sanctions, this is a particularly difficult area for analysis.

Revealing the invisible

North Korea does not recognize the AIS mandate, thus most vessels are not visible within their EEZ--a difficult problem for those tasked with enforcing embargos.

Maxar VDS allows you to see all ships regardless of AIS. Toggle the map below to reveal just how many ships are actually in the area.

Honing in on suspicious activity

Maxar SAR capabilities, including expert analysts, can quickly identify potential transshipment activity. Below you can see two distinct ships in a very intimate range of one another--a strong indicator of transshipment.

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Why Maxar?

Premium coverage and flexibility

Our premium quality datasets are processed to fit any data visualization platform.

192M sq km

Ingested and monitored over 12-month period

RADARSAT-2 | Best-in-class commercial SAR

>98% satellite availability for reliable acquisition
20 imaging beam modes for the widest range of resolution (1 to 100m) and coverage (up to 250,000 sq km per extent)
28 minutes per orbit | 14 orbits per day

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

Maxar SAR capabilities offer a cost-effective solution allowing collection day or night, rain or shine, to help customers access the most comprehensive and timely view of their area of interest.

Downlink to delivery within minutes

Ships move. Access to a global range of ground stations enables faster downlink and delivery to the customer, which is critical to tactical decision-making in maritime monitoring.

Maxar’s global network of ground stations

FID	7
Point_ID	24
TRACKID	T0000000030
UTC	2019-05-07T00:30:31
Latitude	1.32641
Longitude	-91.802285
Length	160
Heading	170.0
Width	37
Pol	HH
BEAMMODE	DVWF

FID	98
Point_ID	74
TRACKID	T00000000517
UTC	2018-04-07T09:27:04
Latitude	41.745767
Longitude	131.300126
Length	291
Heading	189.0
Width	81
Pol	HH

FID	88
Point_ID	64
TRACKID	T00000000505
UTC	2018-04-07T09:26:53
Latitude	40.973091
Longitude	129.827512
Length	117
Heading	054.0
Width	77
Pol	HH
BEAMMODE	DVWF

FID	78
Point_ID	54
TRACKID	T00000000466
UTC	2018-04-07T09:26:34
Latitude	39.983912
Longitude	131.41218
Length	190
Heading	201.0
Width	69
Pol	HH

The world is so big; it's best viewed on a desktop!

Copy a link to the demo below or email it yourself so you can explore it on a larger screen.

microsites.maxar.com/vessel-detection-service

FID	12
Point_ID	12
TRACKID	T000000009
UTC	2019-05-07T00:29:45
Latitude	-1.065679
Longitude	-89.613209
Length	127
Heading	357.0
Width	46
Pol	HH
BEAMMODE	DVWF
MMSI_R	735059075
IMO_R	5146689
ShipName_R	M/N PAOLA
CallSign_R	HC4501
SoG_C	7.7
CoG_C	100.5
Type_R	Cargo
Length_R	52
Headin_R	177.0
Width_R	8