New system for space-based, aerial and terrestrial monitoring of marine emissions

12 November 2012

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), together with the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), are developing a new solution (SAMBA) to support a level playing field for the maritime transportation. SAMBA combines space-based, aerial and terrestrial technologies.

The technical feasibility as well as the economic viability of SAMBA is being investigated by FMI and KNMI in collaboration with the Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Scheme of the space-based observation of ship emissions. Click to enlarge.		Emissions of CO2 from ship traffic based on movements of individual ships. Click to enlarge.

In the first stage, the objective of SAMBA is to establish the feasibility of space-based services for maritime emission monitoring. SAMBA will achieve its objective by combining AIS/GPS-based maritime emissions with remote sensing-based atmospheric pollution monitoring into maritime emission compliance monitoring and information provision service.

To achieve these objectives, FMI has is developing a proof of concept based on a demonstration agreement with exactEarth, a provider of satellite Automatic Identification System (AIS). AIS provide automatically at regular intervals information on position, identification, course, speed, etc of the ships.

The results so far demonstrate the feasibility of a space-driven compliance monitoring for shipping lanes. In co-operation with authorities and value-adding information providers, the limitations of technology are being pushed to allow the detection of individual non-compliance cases.