Analysis of COSMO/SkyMed Application to Maritime Surveillance of Mediterranean Basin

The paper deals with the analysis of COSMO-SkyMed observation frequencies over Mediterranean areas mainly interested by migration fluxes to Europe and Italy. The utilized method accounts for multiple satellite configurations and steerable sensors and allows one to determine time required for observation and for re-observation of a given target area. Results show that the utilization of all satellites of the constellation lead to 9 full observations of the critical areas in the repetition period with 95% of the targets on the all migration zones observed roughly every about 31 hours (mean value). Better performance can be foreseen in the case of synergic use of existing or future SAR constellations