A Methodology of Ship Detection Using High-Resolution Satellite Optical Image

As the international trade increases, vessel traffics around the Korean Peninsula are also increasing. Maritime accidents hence take place more frequently in the southern coast of Korea where many big and small ports are located. Accidents involving ship collision and sinking result in a substantial human and material damage as well as the marine environmental pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to locate the ships quickly when such accidents occur. In this study, we suggest a new ship detection index by comparing and analyzing the reflectivity of each channel of the Korea Multi-Purpose SATellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2) images of the area around the Gwangyang Bay. A threshold value of 0.1 is set based on a histogram analysis, and all vessels are detected when compared with RGB composite images. After selecting a relatively large ship as a representative sample, the distribution of spatial reflectivity around the ship is studied. Uniform shadows are detected on the northwest side of the vessel. This indicates that the sun is in the southeast, the azimuth of the actual satellite image is 144.80 degrees, and the azimuth angle of the sun can be estimated using the shadow position. The reflectivity of the shadows is 0.005 lower than the surrounding sea and ship. The shadow height varies with the position of the bow and the stern, perhaps due to the relative heights of the ship deck and the structure. The results of this study can help search technology for missing vessels using optical satellite images in the event of a marine accident around the Korean Peninsula.