Space Shepherd: Search and Rescue of Illegal Immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea Through Satellite Imagery

This paper presents the preliminary results obtained within a research project aimed to assess the feasibility of a system to monitor the immigration flows in the Southern Mediterranean Sea by solely relying on images coming from scientific and commercial satellites, which already operates on a regular basis. “Space Shepherd”, a project funded by Politecnico di Milano, Italy, has the ultimate goal of integrating information coming from a number of satellites to 1) monitor remotely the Southern Mediterranean Sea, 2) detect the presence of possible vessels, 3) identify the migrant vessels and keep the authorities informed, 4) track the vessels and issue warnings in case of danger, 5) support the search and rescue operations. The methodology for scheduling image acquisitions is presented, as well as the algorithms for automatic detection of vessels in both optical and SAR images. The performances of the system are discussed, and its feasibility is assessed.