This book covers the use of SAR for maritime surveillance applications. It provides a comprehensive source of material on the subject, divided into two parts. The first part deals with models and techniques, while the second part is devoted to maritime surveillance applications. Each chapter covers the basic principles, a critical review of the current technology, techniques and applications, and the latest developments in the field.

Here is a review of the current potential of Earth Observations that devotes particular attention to the challenges posed by the European Seas. The assessment of surface parameters by means of passive techniques – which measure reflected visible and near-infrared sunlight, or surface emissions in the thermal infrared or microwave spectral regions – is addressed. Active techniques – which use transmitted impulses of visible or microwave radiation – are covered as well.

Based on the experiences of the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa and the Radar and Surveillance System (RaSS) national laboratory of the National Interuniversity Consortium of Telecommunication (CNIT), Radar Imaging for Maritime Observation presents the most recent results in radar imaging for maritime observation. The book explores both the areas of sea surface remote sensing and maritime surveillance providing key theoretical concepts of SAR and ISAR imaging and more advanced and ad-hoc techniques for applications in maritime scenarios. The book is organized in two sections. The first section discusses the fundamentals of standard SAR/ISAR processing and novel imaging techniques, such as Bistatic, Passive, and, 3D Interferometric ISAR. The second section focuses on the applications and results obtained by processing real data from maritime observations like SAR image processing for oil spill, detection in SAR images and fractal analysis. Useful to both beginners and experts in maritime observation, this book provides several examples of (mainly space-borne) radar imaging of maritime targets. Nevertheless, the same principles and techniques apply to the case of manned or unmanned carriers and to ground and air moving targets.

Information is always required by organizations of coastal states about the movements, identities and intentions of vessels sailing in the waters of interest to them, which may be coastal waters, straits, inland waterways, rivers, lakes or open seas. This interest may stem from defense requirements or from needs for the protection of off-shore resources, enhanced search and rescue services, deterrence of smuggling, drug trafficking and other illegal activities and/or for providing vessel traffic services for safe and efficient navigation and protection of the environment. To meet these needs it is necessary to have a well designed maritime surveillance and control system capable of tracking ships and providing other types of information required by a variety of user groups ranging from port authorities, shipping companies, marine exchanges to governments and the military. Principles of Integrated Maritime Surveillance Systems will be of vital interest to anyone responsible for the design, implementation or provision of a well designed maritime surveillance and control system capable of tracking ships and providing navigational and other types of information required for safe navigation and efficient commercial operation. Principles of Integrated Maritime Surveillance Systems is therefore essential to a variety of user groups ranging from port authorities to shipping companies and marine exchanges as well as civil governments and the military.

Today, air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radars, or more generally maritime surveillance radars, are installed on maritime reconnaissance aircraft for long-range detection, tracking and classification of surface ships (ASuW - Air to Surface Warfare) and for hunting submarines (ASW - anti-submarine warfare). Such radars were first developed in the UK during WWII as part of the response to the threat to shipping from German U-Boats. This book describes the ASV radars developed in the UK after WWII (1946-2000) and used by the RAF for long-range maritime surveillance.

This carefully curated volume presents an in-depth, state-of-the-art discussion on many applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Integrating interdisciplinary sciences, the book features novel ideas, quantitative methods, and research results, promising to advance computational practices and technologies within the academic and industrial communities. SAR applications employ diverse and often complex computational methods rooted in machine learning, estimation, statistical learning, inversion models, and empirical models. Current and emerging applications of SAR data for earth observation, object detection and recognition, change detection, navigation, and interference mitigation are highlighted. Cutting edge methods, with particular emphasis on machine learning, are included. Contemporary deep learning models in object detection and recognition in SAR imagery with corresponding feature extraction and training schemes are considered. State-of-the-art neural network architectures in SAR-aided navigation are compared and discussed further. Advanced empirical and machine learning models in retrieving land and ocean information — wind, wave, soil conditions, among others, are also included.

The proceedings of the 2014 Reinventing Space conference present a number of questions in the context of a constantly innovating space industry, from addressing the future of global cooperation, investigating the impact of cuts in US government spending on the private space sector, and probing the overall future of the commercial launch sector. Space tourism and new technology promise the revival of interest in space development (the Apollo Era was the first period of intense space activity and growth). The need to create dramatically lower cost, responsive and reliable launch systems and spacecraft has never been more vital. Advances in technology are allowing smaller and cheaper satellites to be orbited - from cubesats to nanosatellites to femtosatellites. Thanks to more efficient new launch possibilities, low cost access to space is becoming ever more achievable. Commercial companies and countries are targeting the industry with new funding. Organised by the British Interplanetary Society, the presentations at this conference thoroughly address these challenges and opportunities.

An authoritative work on Synthetic Aperture Radar system engineering, with key focus on high resolution imaging, moving target indication, and system engineering technology Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a powerful microwave remote sensing technique that is used to create high resolution two or three-dimensional representations of objects, such as landscapes, independent of weather conditions and sunlight illumination. SAR technology is a multidisciplinary field that involves microwave technology, antenna technology, signal processing, and image information processing. The use of SAR technology continues grow at a rapid pace in a variety of applications such as high-resolution wide-swath observation, multi-azimuth information acquisition, high-temporal information acquisition, 3-D terrain mapping, and image quality improvement. Design Technology of Synthetic Aperture Radar provides detailed coverage of the fundamental concepts, theories, technology, and design of SAR systems and sub-systems. Supported by the author’s over two decades of research and practice experience in the field, this in-depth volume systematically describes SAR design and presents the latest research developments. Providing examination of all topics relevant to SAR—from radar and antenna system design to receiver technology and signal and image information processing—this comprehensive resource: Provides wide-ranging, up-to-date examination of all major topics related to SAR science, systems, and software Includes guidelines to conduct grounding system designs and analysis Offers coverage of all SAR algorithm classes and detailed SAR algorithms suitable for enabling software implementations Surveys SAR and computed imaging literature of the last sixty years Emphasizes high resolution imaging, moving target indication, and system engineering Design Technology of Synthetic Aperture Radar is indispensable for graduate students majoring in SAR system design, microwave antenna, signal and information processing as well as engineers and technicians involved in SAR system techniques.

Sea Clutter: Scattering, the K Distribution and Radar Performance examines the statistics of radar scattering from the sea surface in terms of their relevance to radar operating in a maritime environment; including remote sensing, surveillance and targeting applications. A lot of the work in the book is based on the compound Kdistribution model for the amplitude statistics of sea clutter. In addition, the book addresses the specification of performance required by customers and the measurement of performance of systems supplied to customers.

Wirth (senior consultant, Research Establishment for Applied Science, Germany) introduces the techniques, procedures, and concepts related to modern radar using active array antennas. Chapters cover signal representation and mathematical tools, statistical signal theory, array antennas, beamforming, sampling and digitization of signals, pulse compression with polyphase codes, detection of targets by a pulse series, sequential detection, adaptive beamforming for jammer suppression, monopulse direction estimation, superresolution in angle, space-time adaptive processing, synthetic aperture radar with active phased arrays, inverse synthetic aperture radar, experimental phased array systems, the floodlight radar concept, and system and parameter considerations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR