Enhancing Maritime Domain Awareness in the

Enhancing Maritime Domain
Awareness in the
Southwest Pacific
Brian Young
Defence Technology Agency
New Zealand Defence Force
Position in the Pacific
Population
4.4 million
15,000 km of
coastline
330 islands
larger than 5
hectares
Source of
more than
3000
international
shipping
movements
Over 99%
exports and
imports (by
volume)
moved by sea
Concentric 1,000km radii circles
Exclusive
Economic
Zone
• NZ EEZ = 4.4M km2
• NZ ECS = 1.7M km2
Search & Rescue
Region
• NZ SAR Region = 30M km2
• From South Pole north to
Kiribati group
• From mid Tasman Sea
east to Cook Islands
• 844 emergencies (EPIRBs
and maydays) in NZ SAR
area May 2011 – 2012
Recreational fleet
•NZ registered vessels must have Category 1 safety certification to legally leave NZ EEZ
• International vessels do not need to pass
Source - YotReps (www.pangolin.co.nz)
Source: Yachting New Zealand Safety Inspection Database
Drivers for Maritime
Domain Awareness
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Military operations
Disaster relief
Search and rescue
Illegal fishing
Energy security
Conservation
Illegal immigration
Terrorist activity
Smuggling
Humanitarian
Assistance
Economic
Security
Criminal
Activity
Military Operations (in the wider Pacific Region)
Defence White Paper: Possible use of
military force in the following
circumstances:
• in response to a direct threat to New Zealand and
its territories;
• in response to a direct threat to Australia;
• as part of collective action in support of a member
of the Pacific Islands Forum facing a direct threat;
• as part of New Zealand's contribution to the Five
Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA); or
• if requested or mandated by the United Nations
(UN), especially in support of peace and security in
the Asia-Pacific region
Solomon Is
2003-2013
Timor-Leste
1999-2012
Disaster Relief (in the wider Pacific Region)
Aitutaki Cyclone
Feb-10
Samoan Tsunami, Sep-09
Christchurch Earthquake
Sep-10, Feb-11
Tokelau/Tuvalu Drought
Oct/Nov-11
Search and Rescue
Lost
Jun 2013
Tasman Sea
6 US, 1 UK
21-m Nina
Found
Jan 2010
Kiribati
5-m
Lost
Jan 2013
Mt. Elizabeth
Ross Dependency
Antarctica
3 Canadians
DHC-6 Twin Otter
Lost
Feb 2011
Ross Sea
3 Norwegians
14-m Berserk
Crippled Fishing Boat
Dec 2011, Ross Sea, Russian “Sparta”
Economic Security
Semi-Submerged Containers
Oct 2011, Reef off Tauranga Coast
Container Ship “Rena” Grounding
Criminal Activity
Current approaches
to MDA
Other MDA Technologies
AIS
VMS
Yotreps
Vessel Traffic (AIS)
Recentred from
Plot of AIS messages collected over first 6 months of NTS operations (Image courtesy of AGI).
Newland, et.al. Nanosatellite Tracking of Ships — Review of the First Year of Operations. 7th
Responsive Space Conference, Los Angeles, CA 2009
Recreational Movements
YotReps is a volunteer yacht reporting database
• Vessels travel between Pacific Islands and NZ
to shelter from the tropical cyclone season.
• Peak departures are in May to Fiji and Tonga
• Peak arrivals are in November from Fiji, Tonga
and New Caledonia.
All months
Source - YotReps (www.pangolin.co.nz)
May
November
Evolving solutions for
enhanced MDA
Commercial EO Imagery
• DTA is collaborating with US ONR-G and U
Leicester (UK) on Space-Based Maritime
Domain Awareness
• Fusion of imagery from multiple satellites and
sensors
• Sail Fiji yacht race used to test the concept
• Ground truth data derived from YellowBrick
• Cloud cover was a major issue
YellowBrick Tracks
Synthetic Aperture Radar
•
•
•
•
•
•
Penetrates cloud
Working with Canada to characterize RadarSat-2 for
NZ region
Polar regions are a common interest
Automated technology required
to interpret the imagery
Swathe width versus resolution
trade-off
RCM may improve coverage
CubeSat Nanosatellites
• Most satellite operations are not designed for a
large oceanic ‘low market’ area.
• Economics of persistent surveillance of the South
Pacific currently do not stack up
• CubeSats – 10cm x 10cm
• CubeSats may fill
x 10cm – may fill this role
in the future
Planet Labs’ “Flock 1”
• 28x 3-unit “doves” deployed
from ISS in February 2014
• Provide high resolution and
high frequency Earth
imagery
• Could be used to tip and cue
higher-value space and/or
airborne sensors.
Automation – AIS Behaviour
Vessel Movement Analysis
Automated analysis
of AIS information
for tipping and
cuing airborne or
space-based
sensors
Drifting
Circle
U-Turn
Reverse-Turn
S-Turn
Proximity
Summary
• With more than 30M km2 to cover, persistent MDA
is a big problem, but not insurmountable
• Current surveillance technologies will not meet
New Zealand’s MDA needs
• The solution will be multi-faceted, but primarily
space-based
• Automation is key
Mahalo
Thank You