Better monitoring of European borders via optimised maritime surveillance services
Over the course of two decades, the European Commission and various key stakeholders have been working on preparatory research and development for the Copernicus programme. Efforts were aimed at establishing a European capacity for Earth observation (EO). The EU-funded project SAGRES (Services activations for growing Eurosur's success) set out to further develop the Copernicus programme by delivering a set of maritime surveillance services defined by the user community. These services have been defined by the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Generated by processing EO imagery and collaborative data streams, the services are designed to track ships over the high seas. The SAGRES team supported the pre-operational tests as well as deployment of critical concept of operations (CONOPS) components through the European External Border Surveillance System (Eurosur). Specifically, project partners tested and validated the technology available for monitoring third-country coasts that have been identified as regular departure points for migrant boats. In all, eight service activations were carried out in the central-western Mediterranean basin. Results demonstrate that EO technology can support operational border surveillance missions that involve the deployment of specific air- and shipborne assets. Factors such as responsiveness, processing and delivery time, geolocation accuracy, and the ability to detect small, non-metallic and dynamic targets were measured and showed an improvement over existing performance. The reliability of CONOPS services was also assessed. The prospect of integrating project outcomes into operational ship monitoring systems is high. SAGRES provided a realistic exploitation roadmap for the successful strategic, tactical and operational contribution of EO technology in border surveillance operations.
Keywords
Maritime surveillance, Copernicus, border surveillance, Earth observation, Eurosur
