The InflateSAR Campaign: Testing SAR Vessel Detection Systems for Refugee Rubber Inflatables

Countless numbers of people lost their lives at Europe's southern borders in recent years in the attempt to cross to Europe in small rubber inflatables. This work examines satellite-based approaches to build up future systems that can automatically detect those boats. We compare the performance of several automatic vessel detectors using real synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from X-band and C-band sensors on TerraSAR-X and Sentinel-1. The data was collected in an experimental campaign where an empty boat lies on a lake's surface to analyse the influence of main sensor parameters (incidence angle, polarization mode, spatial resolution) on the detectability of our inflatable. All detectors are implemented with a moving window and use local clutter statistics from the adjacent water surface. Among tested detectors are well-known intensity-based (CA-CFAR), sublook-based (sublook correlation) and polarimetric-based (PWF, PMF, PNF, entropy, symmetry and iDPolRAD) approaches. Additionally, we introduced a new version of the volume detecting iDPolRAD aimed at detecting surface anomalies and compare two approaches to combine the volume and the surface in one algorithm, producing two new highly performing detectors. The results are compared with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, enabling us to compare detectors independently of threshold selection.

Automated summary

This study examines the performance of several automatic vessel detectors using real SAR data and introduces a new highly performing detector aimed at detecting surface anomalies. Two approaches to combine volume and surface in one algorithm are compared, producing two new detectors. Results are compared using ROC curves, enabling detector comparison independently of threshold selection.