Radar Vessel Detection

A metal hull on water is close to an ideal radar target: bright, compact, against a dark and largely uniform background. That physics is why radar remains the foundation of maritime surveillance from space, and why detection works equally at three in the morning, under a storm, and through the Arctic winter. It is the only sensor that gives a genuinely persistent picture of a sea area.

The service screens SAR passes over an area, detects targets against the local sea clutter rather than against a fixed threshold, masks land, platforms and wind farms, and estimates each target’s length, width and heading. Where a wake is resolved it adds a speed and course estimate. Output is a georeferenced detection list per pass, with confidence per detection and a completeness statement covering sea state, because in a rough sea small vessels are missed, and a user needs to be told that rather than shown an empty ocean.