SARsatX
Overview

Understanding the Environmental Risk

Oil spills remain one of the most persistent threats to marine environments. In many cases, vessels deliberately discharge toxic waste into open waters to avoid regulatory costs and operational delays. These incidents often go unnoticed, causing long-term damage to ecosystems, marine life, and water quality.

Dead fish washed ashore as a result of marine oil pollution
Oil-coated seabird affected by an offshore spill
Aerial view of a dark oil slick spreading across green ocean water with a vessel responding
Challenge

The Challenge of Invisible Pollution

  • Illegal Dumping at Scale

    Many ships deliberately dump toxic waste in open waters to bypass costly pollution prevention equipment or avoid paying for treatment at port facilities.

  • Vessels Escape Accountability

    Most dumping happens in open waters — unobserved — and by the time it's detected, the responsible ship has already escaped prosecution.

  • Red Sea Under Threat

    The Red Sea faces this threat acutely, with more than 10% of global shipping trade passing through it while 90% of international trade relies on global shipping.

Traditional Monitoring

  • Visual inspection only
  • Weather-dependent
  • Limited coverage area
  • Hours to days detection time

Satellite-Based Detection

  • All-weather SAR imaging
  • Day & night operation
  • Global ocean coverage
  • Near real-time detection
Objective

Mission objective

Detect Oil Spills

Works day and night, in dust and clouds, ensuring data availability at all times

Identify Polluters

Clear, high-resolution images in suitable weather conditions

Enable Enforcement

Automated pipelines for rapid transformation of raw data into actionable insights

Hazard assessment map of oil spill risk along the main shipping lane of the Red Sea

Hazard assessment of oil spills along the main shipping lane in the Red Sea

Solution

Detection Process

SAR satellite imagery combined with AIS vessel tracking data to identify polluters

Grayscale SAR satellite capture of an oil spill trail on the ocean surface

Detecting Bilge Dump

SAR satellite captures ocean surface imagery showing oil spill signatures in all weather conditions

Map view of AIS vessel tracking signals across a region of the ocean

AIS Data

Vessel tracking signal continuously transmitted by all ships showing position, course, and speed

SAR image overlaid with vessel tracks identifying the source of an oil spill

Data Fusion

Correlation of spill location with vessel position identifies the likely polluter with high confidence

SAR Data

Oil spill detection

AIS Data

Vessel position

Polluter ID

Evidence-based prosecution

Environmental Impact

Significantly Rewarding

The environmental impact is significantly rewarding. The provided information to environmental law enforcement can be used to prosecute vessel polluters.

Prosecute Polluters

Evidence provided to environmental law enforcement enables prosecution of vessel polluters, establishing accountability and legal consequences for illegal dumping.

Reduce Oil Dumping

The oil dumping will be reduced and will keep toxics away from our waters, protecting marine ecosystems and preserving ocean health for future generations.

Support Disaster Recovery

In case of a major oil spill, real-time and continuous data can assist the work on the recovery process of the disaster area.

Visual Proof

Detection in Action

Real satellite imagery showing raw SAR data and AI-processed detection output