Multi-sensor maritime monitoring for the Canadian Arctic: Case studies

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) in the Canadian Arctic is limited by the scarceness or even absence of monitoring sensors. The backbone for vessel surveillance is represented by the satellite-based Automatic Identification System (S-AIS), which provides important though not comprehensive information about ships in the area. The objective of the Canadian-German research project PASSAGES is to specify the requirements and the modular architecture of a persistent maritime surveillance and risk management system adapted to arctic conditions and focused on the Northwest Passage (NWP). In order to provide a continuous vessel traffic picture in remote and local areas, real and simulated sensors from space borne and ground based platforms besides S-AIS are taken into account. The capabilities of such multi-sensor surveillance solutions in enhancing the MDA are demonstrated over two selected operationally relevant scenarios. A key element to achieve this, are robust multisource tracking and fusion algorithms able to cope with different heterogeneous and potentially delayed, imprecise or misaligned sensor data.