Global maritime surveillance using satellites has become an essential tool for monitoring and managing the world’s oceans. This article, the first part of a two-part series, focuses on the satellite technologies used in this field. The authors, a group of experts in the field, explain the various types of satellites used for maritime surveillance, including optical and radar sensors, and their capabilities in detecting and tracking ships. They also discuss the challenges associated with using satellites for maritime surveillance, such as clouds, shadows, and the vastness of the oceans themselves. To overcome these challenges, the authors propose a novel approach called "Attributes Decompose Head" (ADH), which uses convolutional layers to generate attention maps that highlight the most important attributes for identifying ships. The ADH is positioned after the final layer of the network and serves as a crucial component for feature refinement. By providing a deeper understanding of the model’s decision-making process, the ADH enhances the explainability of the network’s performance in person ReID tasks.
In simple terms, satellite technologies are like "eyes in the sky" that help monitor and manage the world’s oceans. Optical sensors can detect ships using color, while radar sensors use radio waves to locate them. However, clouds and shadows can obstruct these sensors’ views, making it challenging to accurately identify ships. To overcome this challenge, the authors propose an innovative approach called "Attributes Decompose Head" (ADH), which highlights the most important attributes for identifying ships. By providing a better understanding of how the model works, ADH improves the accuracy and explainability of person ReID tasks.
