AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF UNIDENTIFIED SHIPS USING SATELLITE IMAGES
AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF UNIDENTIFIED SHIPS USING SATELLITE IMAGES

Author(s): Marta CAPITO, Diogo SILVA
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Security and defense
Published by: Carol I National Defence University Publishing House
Keywords: Maritime patrol; Artificial intelligence; Ship detection; Satellite images;
Summary/Abstract: The Air Force Integrates maritime surveillance into national defence, monitoring naval activities through Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracking and real-time aircraft inspections. Due to Portugal’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), continuous surveillance is challenging. This study develops an AI-based tool to detect ships in satellite images and cross-reference them with AIS data, triggering alerts for discrepancies. Using YOLOv8 for ship detection and Sentinel-2 satellite images, the tool was built in Python and validated through simulations. Experimental results confirm its effectiveness.

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