Matching Method for Ship Identification Using Satellite-Based Radio Frequency Sensing Data

Vessels can operate with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) turned off, prompting the development of strategies to identify them. Among these, utilizing satellites to collect radio frequency (RF) data in the absence of AIS has emerged as the most effective and practical approach. The purpose of this study is to develop a matching algorithm for RF with AIS data and find the RF's applicability to classify a suspected ship. Thus, a matching procedure utilizing three RF datasets and AIS data was employed to identify ships in the Yellow Sea and the Korea Strait. The matching procedure was conducted based on the proximity to AIS points, ensuring accuracy through various distance -based sections, including 2 km, 3 km, and 6 km from the AIS-based estimated points. Within the RF coverage, the matching results from the first RF dataset and AIS data identified a total of 798 ships, with an overall matching rate of 78%. In the cases of the second and third RF datasets, 803 and 825 ships were matched, resulting in an overall matching rate of 84.3% and 74.5%, respectively. The observed results were partially influenced by differences in RF and AIS coverage. Within the overlapped region of RF and AIS data, the matching rate ranged from 80.2% to 98.7%, with an average of 89.3%, with no duplicate matches to the same ship.