A company specializing in satellite data analysis has succeeded in identifying ghost ships near the place of the Pipeline explosion in the Baltic Sea.
According to reports, two large ships with a length of 95 to 130 meters were seen, which crossed near the north stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, where explosions led to great methane leaves at the end of September. The Swedish security services quickly initiated an investigation into sabotage that continues. The analysis of satellite data carried out by the Spaceknow company made it possible to identify the presence of two ships that were traveling under very suspicious conditions because they had cut off their trackers, as the magazine reported.
“We discovered ghost ships, large boats that drove through this area of interest,” said Jerry Javornnicky, CEO and co -founder of Spaceknow. “They had turned off their baks, which means that there was no information about their presence and they tried to hide their location information,” added Javornnicky. These conclusions were sent to the NATO as part of the examination, which was carried out to identify the origin of the explosion.
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Research on satellite imagery covered almost 90 days prior to the event and pointed to various identification and detection data. They worked with images from a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which takes two-dimensional photos and enables reconstructions in three dimensions. This technique allows boats to be located thanks to the reflection of metallic objects, obtaining very precise longitude and latitude coordinates.
Transponder intentionally cut?
In the weeks leading up to the blasts, SpaceKnow spotted 25 ships passing through the area, ranging from “freighters to larger general-purpose vessels,” Javornicky said. 23 of them had the Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder turned on, a procedure required by international maritime law. AIS provides name, location, heading, speed and other vessel information. However, the system can be disturbed by involuntary external events such as the weather.
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Two boats that passed the area had not activated their AIS data systems a few days before the leaks were discovered. A stance that strongly questions investigators, the vessels that engage in the practice generally do so to cover up their activity, as is the case with illegal fishing or modern slavery, for example. The practice is very dangerous because sailing with a mask no longer signals the ship to others. And the Baltic Sea is one of the busiest for merchant and cargo ships.