Wake Detection and Ship Velocity Estimation Methods in SAR Images

The detection of wake waves in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images when imaging the ocean is useful for estimating the ship velocity and acquiring other ship information. However, the detection of wake waves may be difficult owing to the thinness of the wake in some images. In this study, a Gabor filter is applied by taking advantage of the features of wake waves that are most likely to be observed in ocean SAR imagery. The filter accurately extracts wake waves that extend in the same direction as that of the filter application. Furthermore, a ship velocity estimation technique is proposed that applies the information of the detected wake waves.