Imagery captured by Planet satellites of Sydney’s Port Jackson. Credit: @Planet
WASHINGTON — The race to monitor the world’s oceans from space is driving a wave of investment in maritime surveillance technologies and prompting new industry coordination efforts.
A working group focused on maritime intelligence is seeking participation from satellite operators, analytics firms, government agencies and academic institutions as demand grows for technologies that track everything from illegal fishing and sanctions evasion to commercial shipping and naval activity.
The initiative is being organized by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), a nonprofit industry organization, and led by maritime intelligence company SynMax. The effort comes as maritime domain awareness has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the geospatial intelligence market, driven by the rapid expansion of commercial satellite constellations, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics.
“For the first time we’re seeing this large investment and a lot of cool new geospatial technologies coming out, and a big focus on it from the geospatial community,” said Eric Anderson, chief executive of SynMax.
