Review of capabilities
Below is an summary of the various
Type of Data |
Resolution |
Collection Area |
Latency |
Revisit |
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
Satellite Radar (Sentinel-1) |
10 meters |
Medium |
3-6 hours |
2 weeks |
- Sees through clouds |
- Minimal to no detail about maritime objects |
Optical Imagery (Sentinel-2) |
10 meter |
Medium |
3-6 hours |
5 days |
- Capable of detecting vessels of many sizes |
- Limited by clouds |
Optical Imagery (Landsat 8,9) |
15 meter (30 meter color added) |
Medium |
3-7 hours |
8 days |
- Capable of detecting vessels of many sizes |
- Limited by clouds |
Night Lights (VIIRS) |
750 meter |
Very Large |
2-2.5 hours |
Three times or more nightly |
- Global coverage multiple times per night - Low latency |
- Limited by bright moonlight, thick clouds - 2+ vessels may appear as one detection - No physical details of vessels |
Satellite Radar (Commercial - Airbus, IceEye*) |
5, 20, or 40 meters |
Small to large |
90 minutes or longer |
Multiple opportunities per day |
- Sees through clouds |
- Limited detail about maritime objects |
Radio Frequency (Commercial - Unseen Labs*) |
No image |
Large |
3-24 hours |
Multiple opportunities per day |
- Huge coverage footprint - Sees through clouds |
- Low geolocation accuracy - No physical details of vessel |
Optical Imagery (Commercial - Maxar*) |
~1 meter |
Very small |
90 minutes or longer |
Multiple opportunities per day |
- High detail including size, vessel type, and gear visible |
- Limited by clouds - Small coverage footprint |
* Requires a request to Skylight. Only available in the Skylight web-platform.
Inland Waterways and Lakes
Vessel detection can also be processed for major inland waterways and lakes on a case-by-case basis. Please note that detection performance may not match at-sea results, as the models were primarily trained for ocean environments. However, it may still provide useful monitoring capability. To request inland waterway or lake vessel detection, please contact the Skylight team at support@skylight.global.
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