Network for Plastic Monitoring in Waters

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Logo DLRTeam: Maritime Safety and Security Lab

This team is part of the inter-institute Maritime Safety and Security Lab Neustrelitz, where the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) and DLR’s Institute of Communication and Navigation (KN) pool their expertise in the areas of satellite-supported real-time systems and maritime traffic engineering. The work of the lab is intended to contribute to guaranteeing safe shipping, protecting oceans and coastal waters, and assisting public authorities to combat illegal activities (such as hazardous substance dumping, illegal fishing, and piracy).

The role of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) at the Neustrelitz Maritime Safety and Security Lab Neustrelitz is to develop and validate real-time systems for generating maritime information products from satellite data and to make them available for distribution to users in near-real-time. That means within 10 to 15 minutes after acquisition of the satellite data.

Another thematic focus is data fusion. It is often useful to combine or merge satellite-based information products with different types of supplementary data in order to increase their information content.

The Neustrelitz site of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is approximately 100km north of Berlin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and is the workplace of about 60 scientists, engineers and clerical staff. The R&D work carried out on-site covers themes such as surveillance of the earth by satellite, and navigation; a profile which aligns the site with others in the GMES and GALILEO European research programmes.

Further information: www.dlr.de