Space Images Help Finding Schooner

The Partner fishing schooner, sailing under the flag of Cambodia and registered at the port of Pnom Penh, sent a distress call on 7th January. The ship was catching fish in the Tatar Strait between Sakhalin and the continent. According to Federal Agency for Fishery there were fourteen crew onboard and all of them were Russian citizens. The schooner was searched for by airplanes at the sea and onshore. Bodies of five crewmembers were found in the sea, according to RIA NOVOSTI.

A group of operational satellite-based monitoring of emergencies of ScanEx RDC started the search for the lost ship using satellite images and selecting the imaging and polarisation modes consistent with the task input data (ship's size, water surface conditions, etc.); ordering two images with minimum time delay; modelling wind and currents to estimate the uncontrolled drift speed and direction and detection of drifting objects based on two consecutive images.

The navigation situation within the search area was evaluated and the fast ice area on the western coast of Sakhalin was established as the most probable location of the lost ship remains and inspected based on the received radar images.

No drifting objects that may match the lost ship in size were detected as a result of detailed study of radar images of the search area on 9th January 2011. Analysis of hydrometeorological data on the day of imaging allowed stating that the prevailing north-westward winds would have moved all drifting objects towards the fast ice near the western coast of Sakhalin.

Upon request the report about the search area satellite observation results was submitted to the Sakhalin Region Prosecutor's Office.

Summed up results of the operational satellite imagery of the area, where the Partner schooner was lost in the Tatar Strait, are available in Russian language following the link below this article.