Innovators I - CFSP

The CFSP innovator project demonstrated a set of products and services based on super-resolution techniques applied to SAR data from ERS-2 and ENVISAT for security applications. The user was the European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) who has a strong background in EO data processing for security applications following their mandate from the European Council and the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP or PESC) from the EU.

Several innovative products and services from SAR data were developed to support the EUSC routine operations during winter and cloudy season, when high resolution optical satellite imagery is not available. The proposed approach delivers products with a resolution, which although not matching the one from very-high-resolution optical satellites, can be enough to detect some changes till the arrival of the good weather. The technique can be adapted for future SAR systems

The following products were developed:

• Superresolution SAR Image: An orthorectified temporally filtered (superresolution) image obtained from a set of ERS and Envisat images;
• Artificial Features Map: A binary vector layer with two classes: artificial and non-artificial fabric;
• Change Detection Map. A vector layer providing information on the differences in artificial features between two different periods;
• Continuous Change Detection service: monthly production of change detection maps using all data available from present winter (2005).

The service and products were demonstrated over areas of operational interest for EUSC and were validated using their strong knowledge of the sites and information from optical satellites. The test cases covered monitoring of military harbours and associated infrastructure in accordance to Non-Proliferation Treaties as well as production of aid contingency planning.