As one of the original suppliers of the CleanSeaNet 1st Generation Service, EDISOFT has worked throughout 2010 to adapt its oil spill analysis processing chain to cope with EMSA’s new requirements for the second generation service, in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. This means that EDISOFT’s processing chain is now capable of producing the oil spill and vessel detection reports based on SAR images from ENVISAT, RADARSAT-1 and ERS-2 in all required modes and that, in the near future, will also accommodate the RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel satellites. Additionally, the analysis processing chain was adapted to fully comply with the EMSA’s strict customer efficiency timelines.
The CleanSeaNet 2nd generation service will replace the existing 1st generation service in 2010, to include additional satellites and sensor modes, expanding the daily service coverage and widening the SAR images characteristics (coverage and resolution). The access to additional information layers (AIS/LRIT) will be natively supported in the service’s new generation to enrich the oil spill and vessel detection services with additional information, namely the ships’ identification and route data.
About CleanSeaNet Service
One of EMSA’s responsibilities is to offer all EU member (coastal) States a near-real time (NRT) marine oil spill detection service using radar satellite imagery acquired by SAR satellites. This service is free of charge and covers all European waters. To date, EMSA delivers the CleanSeaNet service to the 24 European coastal States: Belgium; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Malta; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden and United Kingdom, and may expand the service to other countries in the near future.
The CleanSeaNet service is integrated within the national and regional oil pollution surveillance and response chains of the coastal States and aims at strengthening the operational response for accidental and deliberate discharges from ships as well as assisting coastal States to locate and identify polluters in areas under their jurisdiction. While the aerial surveillance, pollution response and prosecution activities are national tasks, the cross border satellite images (together with additional ancillary information such vessel tracking information) are provided by EMSA’s CleanSeaNet.
A common approach to oil spill monitoring at the European level, using compatible data standards and methodologies, supports the development of statistics on the extent of ship sourced oil pollution. In the case of a detected oil spill, an alert is delivered to the relevant coastal State operational contact point, responsible for monitoring of ships’ sourced pollution at the national level. The alert message can be transmitted via a phone call, an email, a fax or an SMS, depending on the alert means the coastal State has defined. It is of outmost importance that coastal States administrations are immediately informed of any potential spill with the aim of increasing the likelihood of catching the polluter red-handed.
Each coastal State has access to the CleanSeaNet service through a web-based application that disseminates the CleanSeaNet data and products to the users. Coastal States define the areas to be monitored by the CleanSeaNet service, together with the required number of satellite scenes. Coastal States requirements for monitoring take into account national knowledge of sea areas where the illegal oil discharges are known to take place, areas of high traffic density, environmentally sensitive areas and other factors which influence national monitoring requirements and planning.
CleanSeaNet began operating in April 2007. In the first two and half years of service, approximately 5800 satellite radar images were provided to coastal States. In 2009, CleanSeaNet identified 2105 possible oil spill detections, of which 775 detections were checked by the coastal States and 195 were confirmed to be mineral oil.
About SMA Ground Station
The Santa Maria launchers tracking station is the first European Space Agency’s (ESA) station in the Portuguese Territory and it is the first ESA station dedicated to launchers’ tracking. It has performed its first mission in March 8th 2008, when the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was launched by Ariane 5 to the International Space Station (ISS). The Station’s operation is EDISOFT’s responsibility, through a consortium involving the regional companies GlobalEda and Segma.
After six months of operations at Santa Maria Satellite Station (SMA), EDISOFT installed new maritime monitoring and surveillance capabilities, enabling the station to perform Remote Detection activities using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. SAR images are collected from ENVISAT (ESA) and RADARSAT-1 (MDA) satellites and allow the identification and classification in near-real time of hidrocarbonets spills (including crude oil spills) as well as their potential polluters (ships), providing the opportunity to the eligible States to make a directional (aerial or naval) verification of the reported oil spill and of the potential ship polluters.
Confirmed SMA’s geo-strategic importance for the monitoring and surveillance of the Atlantic Ocean, it is expected an evolution of this Station’s utilisation as a Centre for receiving and storing data on Earth Observation.
About EDISOFT, S.A.
EDISOFT, S.A. has been a key reference in the Space Systems market, accumulating considerable technical and technological expertise in Satellite Navigation, Satellite Navigation-based applications and Earth Observation.
Established in 1988, EDISOFT, S.A. is also the national leader in the domains of weapons and sensors’ command and control systems for military ships, information integration systems in naval platforms, military logistic information systems and collective security systems.
Today a Portuguese presence throughout the World, EDISOFT, S.A.’s operational systems clearly highlight the Company’s commitment to the internationalization effort, on one part, and to the drive for innovation and entrepreneurship on another. EDISOFT’s excellence was recognised when it became the first Portuguese Company with a CMM appraisal. Established by the Software Engineering Institute, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a five-step methodological approach that analyses the development and implementation of software engineering projects and appraises companies abiding to the most demanding and strict quality and performance criteria.
More information about EDISOFT, S.A. and its product and services portfolio available in: www.edisoft.pt.