The Australian government has chosen HawkEye 360, a private provider of remote sensing satellites, to assist in the use of radio-frequency sensors to find illegal fishing activity.
The Australian government has chosen HawkEye 360, a private provider of remote sensing satellites, to assist in the use of radio-frequency sensors to find illegal fishing activity.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade awarded the company a contract with an undisclosed value for a pilot project supporting the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.
The organisation, which has its headquarters in Honiara, Solomon Islands, was founded in 1979 to assist its 17 member countries in managing their tuna fisheries and detecting illegal fishing activity.
Radio-frequency data analytics is used by Herndon, Virginia-based HawkEye 360 to geolocate electronic emissions and derive information.
In order to identify, classify, and geolocate radio frequency signals from emitters used for communication, navigation, and security, the company manages a constellation of 21 satellites.
The satellites of HawkEye 360 orbit the Earth in triangular formations. Each satellite in a cluster monitors signal waveforms as it passes over an area, downlinking the information to a cloud system for analysis on the ground.
According to Alex Fox, chief growth officer of HawkEye 360, the company will provide satellite RF maritime analytics and training under the contract with Australia through 2023.
He explained that because of their size, volume of traffic, and abundance of fisheries resources, the Pacific Islands pose difficult problems for maritime domain awareness.
In order to spot illegal maritime activity in their waters, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency and its members will receive information, analytics services, and training support, according to Fox. He added that HawkEye 360 can track maritime activity that is undetectable by Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) by analysing RF data.
The geospatial analytics business HawkEye 360 is based in Herndon, Virginia. It sells radio frequency (RF) signal location information gathered by a satellite constellation for commercial purposes.
Three tiny satellites called HawkEye 360 are part of the Pathfinder cluster orbiting the planet at a 575 km altitude. These satellites precisely triangulate and map signals using a cutting-edge water propulsion system.
Each satellite is equipped with a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) that can pick up different radio frequencies. Once they locate a common signal, they can trilate it accurately using information about the signal, the terrain, and other variables.