Insights for enhanced decision-making and situational awareness.
We provide all-weather monitoring for effective maritime situational awareness, to support the detection of illegal or irregular activity at sea and to make maritime activities safer and more efficient.
With our global geographical scope and range of different resolutions and sensor types, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver high-quality imagery and data. We also offer value-added services, including activity detection, and identifying and classifying vessels. View and discover our Tipping & Cueing story map:
Tipping and cueing with GEOSAT’s sensors provides essential information for effective maritime situational awareness and for the detection of illegal or irregular activities at sea.
Cost effective monitoring solution coordinating Medium Resolution (MR) detection product, such as GEOSAT 1, and Very High Resolution (VHR) identification product, such as GEOSAT 2, for a synergistic tipping and cueing.
Coordinated activities between sensors with different spatial and spectral resolutions are crucial for maritime surveillance, especially in locations that are very distant from each other and where having people on the ground is difficult. Our satellite imagery is the perfect source of information to monitor overseas territories in areas such as the South China Sea and Antarctica. It allows to capture reliable imagery and it ensures accurate and timely monitoring over sites located in remote areas where it’s difficult to get up to date and reliable information otherwise. Both satellites are operated continuously through a 24/7/365 service. On the other hand, ground stations management ensures a contact in each orbit allowing to command and download data every 90 minutes.
Tipping and cueing proved very useful for maritime surveillance including vessel monitoring and tracking, ship detection and identification. Thus, GEOSAT’s imagery is the perfect solution to feed integrated maritime services with fresh and reliable information as well as to support maritime control activities.
Ship detection with MR GEOSAT 1 product (left and middle) and ship identification with VHR GEOSAT 2 product (right).
GEOSAT 1 & GEOSAT 2 launched a monitoring campaign to acquire archive imagery over the South China Sea and to demonstrate the coordinated use of the two satellites for imagery intelligence applications: the wide-swath and the Medium Resolution (MR) of GEOSAT 1 and the more narrow-swath and Very High Resolution (VHR) GEOSAT 2.
South China Sea disputed islands map; Fiery Cross Reef is located in the central part (left). GEOSAT 1 111000 sqkm image over South China (right).
The synergistic tipping and cueing technique allows to collect information by coordinating activities between GEOSAT’s sensors. This methodology consists in tasking one satellite with a wide swath to get the broad picture of a hotspot and detect possible changes, activities, and elements of interest. A careful analysis of the data collected provides a general overview and critical knowledge that can be used as a base map to then task other satellites with different spectral and spatial resolution such as GEOSAT 2. In addition, having different spectral bands is very useful to highlight and better detect vessels and ships, while the very high spatial resolution is important to identify them.
In addition, GEOSAT’s 24/7/365 emergency service ensures delivery in Near Real Time - 30 minutes from acquisition.
Change detection
1st monitoring period: dredging and construction activities are clearly visible.
2nd monitoring period: the airstrip starts to be built up along with the point defense in the left corner and the construction site where radar/sensor arrays will be placed.
3rd monitoring period: the central part of the island is fully covered by lots of new constructions.
After 2 years of construction works: the facilities in the island include: an airstrip, radar/sensor arrays, hangars, mobile missile shelters and point defenses.
Last monitoring period: large underground structures likely intended to house munitions and other essential materiel have been completed and entirely buried.
GEOSAT 1 was specifically designed to timely monitor vast regions, thanks to its very wide 650-km wide swath. Additionally, GEOSAT 2 very-high resolution data is a key source of information to detect changes in incredible detail that complement ground assessment information. Thanks to the very high revisit frequency of both sensors, 2 days average revisit time worldwide for GEOSAT 2 and 3 days for GEOSAT 1, a synergistic use of both sensors ensures a remarkable capacity of imaging the Earth’s surface cloud-free.
The images captured over Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf since the calving of the Iceberg A68, allowed to perform a change detection and a multitemporal comparison of the berg’s trajectory.
In this campaign, a synergistic tipping and cueing was carried out, collecting information and coordinating activities between GEOSAT’s sensors. Thanks to its wide swath and high revisit time, GEOSAT 1 pinpointed where the main developments were going on in the Larsen C ice shelf and its surroundings; then, this information was used to task the very-high-resolution GEOSAT 2 over the identified areas, to get much more detailed imagery that allowed a very accurate measurement of the crack’s extension. This procedure of tipping and cueing was applied reversely too, when GEOSAT 2 captured a fraction of a large area and thereupon GEOSAT 1 was tasked to cover its whole extent.
Larsen C Ice Shelf and iceberg A68 pictured by GEOSAT 1 (left) and by GEOSAT 2 (right)
Define your criteria to trigger our imagery service!
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| Aol | Coverage | Resolution |
| Define your Area of Interest | We can cover anywhere in the world without restrictions | Multi Resolution for detection and identification |
KEY BENEFITS
Fast services
Enjoy rapid tasking and imagery delivered in near real time - within 30 minutes - with our 24/7 service.
All-weather monitoring
Thanks to our virtual constellation, we provide frequent, all-weather monitoring for vessel detection and identification.
Cost-effective tipping and cueing
Our multi-resolution satellites can be tasked together to detect and identify irregular activities at sea, accurately and efficiently.
CASE STUDIES
Enabling frequent maritime monitoring for vessel detection and identification
Go beyond the tip of the iceberg. With the tip and cue technique.
Did you know?
GEOSAT can pin-point and monitor maritime traffic in under 4 hours.
Did you know?
You can use our satellite imagery to detect and identify ships anywhere in the world, with no restrictions.
Did you know?
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) uses GEOSAT data for maritime surveillance.
Our Approach
Unlocking Earth Observation's full potential.
We work with our partners, using our high-quality imagery and analytics expertise to extract insights that help you make the right decisions.
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| Imagery | + Analytics | = Insights |
| Our accurate, scientific-quality imagery forms the foundation of our best-in-class services. | We bring imagery to life by applying analytics to extract insights that matter to you. | We go beyond imagery, revealing the insights that help you make better-informed decisions, for a better world. |