Vescosur facilities include a number of web-sites and services to support research or policies.

To carry out its research in innovative sensors and networks, action Vescosur does not dispose yet of dedicated laboratory space inside JRC. However, it is expected to be granted laboratory space by mid-2013.

The European Group of Experts on Satellite Monitoring of sea-based Oil Pollution (EGEMP) is a network to ensure the comprehensive exchange of information, knowledge and expertise about the Satellite monitoring of sea-based oil pollution at European level.

JRC took the initiative to create EGEMP in 2004 and assured its Secretariat up to 2012.

For more information see the EGEMP web site: http://ipsc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?id=746

The Vessel Detection System (VDS) SUMO is the JRC in-house vessel detector software facility based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images. SUMO was designed to support research towards Step 3 of the typical VDS scenario for fisheries control campaigns: (1) Satellite image acquisition, (2) SAR processing, (3) vessel detection, (4) Reception of other positioning data (such as VMS, or AIS), (5) correlation of satellite-derives targets with VMS or AIS positions, (6) reporting to inspectors.

For a description of the Vessel Detection System process - where SUMO has been used extensively - see this 2010 flyer.  

At the moment of this writing in December 2012, SUMO is not available as a web-service. In 2013, JRC wishes to overhaul SUMO with a view to technology transfer.

The Blue Hub is JRC's in-house prototype maritime data fusion platform for maritime situation assessment. Its input is mainly positional information on vessels from both cooperative and non-cooperative sources, but also events or incidents. Its output is ship positions, ship tracks, predicting future ship positions, risk maps or indicators.

The Blue Hub's purpose is not to run an operational service, but rather to support research: to experiment with new data sources and methods to cross-validate data, with new algorithms and techniques to fuse data, with new visualizations, with recostructing vessel trajectories and making better predictions, running simulations, deriving risk maps or doing cost-benefit analyses. The Blue Hub also serves as a repository of JRC knowledge gained through exercises, campaigns or projects in maritime surveillance. Finally, in time, it is also intended to act as a node in maritime surveillance networks supporting information exchanges.

The Blue Hub's started in 2010 and is ongoing. It kicked-off with the design of an anti-piracy application (PMAR), but it is intended to be enriched with knowledge of other maritime activities, like irregular migration or fisheries control, for example.

For more information go to https://bluehub.jrc.ec.europa.eu

The Container Traffic Monitoring System (ConTraffic) is a data gathering and route-based risk analysis system. It collects information on maritime container movements world-wide and targets suspicious container shipments. Its web site offers track-and-trace and route-based risk assessment services to authorized users from EU customs.