Monitoring Maritime Ship Characteristics Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data from Different Sensors

Ship monitoring is important for understanding human maritime activities. Automatic identification systems are widely adopted for ship monitoring. It is not possible to extract ship information when the automatic identification system is dysfunctional due to technical problems or intentionally turned off. Satellite remote sensing is an alternative method for ship monitoring when automatic identification systems are not operational. Since McDonnell and Lewis published the first ship detection study in 1978, ship-monitoring techniques using different types of satellite sensors, such as the synthetic aperture radar, daylight and nighttime-light optical sensors, and radio frequency detectors, have been continuously improving. Despite these improvements, few studies have compared the advantages and disadvantages of each sensor-based ship-monitoring technique. In this study, we reviewed ship-monitoring techniques that used different types of sensors, including the synthetic aperture radar, day- and nighttime-light optical sensors, and radio frequency detectors. Particularly, we focused on ship detection, velocity estimation, and type classification based on these sensors. We hope that this study will contribute to the establishment of a novel maritime surveillance system in the future, supplementing ground observation methods, such as automatic identification systems.