Challenge
The Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) in May 2022 spotted through the Windward platform two oil tankers in the Taiwan Strait as they began to engage in a pattern of behavior suggesting an oil transfer. The time for the detection of the vessels in an anticipated ship-to-ship (STS) meeting was less than 12 hours.
When illegal oil trading, the tankers switch off their automatic identification systems (AIS) as to not be tracked and to conceal the origin and destination of the oil. It is common practice for oil transfer in secret between tankers on the open sea. These activities are hard to track with the use of conventional methods. In many regions, such as Asia, it is difficult to monitor with optical sensors due to weather conditions (cloudiness, fogginess etc.) and the activities taking place at night.
Solution: ICEYE SAR Satellite Data
C4ADS to tackle this challenge employed ICEYE's SAR Satellite constellation to obtain data to corroborate the concealed maritime activities. The Strip acquisition mode was selected, as it provides a large enough area for vessel detection after they switch off their identification systems (30 km x 50 km). This imaging mode also offers resolution of 3 meters, which is excellent for detecting vessels that participate in transferring goods in the STS formation.
Even though tankers' tried to keep their activities secret by going "dark" for 10 hours, ICEYE's constellation managed to help C4ADS to detect a suspected ship-to-ship transfer underway through timely and accurate remote sensing.
Windward's behavioral analysis through scrutinizing the patterns of life of the tankers involved before and after they switched off their identification systems, alerted C4ADS and they were able to determine where to accurately obtain ICEYE SAR data in Strip imaging mode, allowing for identification of which one was the possible feeder and which one was the mothership.
Source: All images and data where taken by ICEYE's Case 'Dark Vessels Brought to Light: Detecting Oil trafficking from space (https://www.iceye.com/lp/case-study-detecting-oil-trafficking-from-space)