Finding small objects at sea remains a challenge for maritime search aircraft. Radar is traditionally size, weight and power dependent. The smaller the object of interest, the larger the radar required to find it. The size and cost is often prohibitive. Even in challenging sea states the search for small objects is still conducted visually. If you are lost at sea at night, your chance of being found drops significantly due to the reliance on narrow feld of view (sodastraw) infra-red sensors.
The airborne ORCA Day/Night Optical Search Sensor provides a transformative capability for small object search.
Easily installed, and a fraction of the size weight and power of a traditional radar, the Arkeus ORCA Optical Search Sensor uses a specially configured array of day and night optical sensors that continuously observe the ocean in a 180-degree arc in front of the aircraft.
Everything on the ocean's surface is autonomously detected in under a second, presenting aircraft operators with a series of small images of each object found alongside its location coordinate on a map. Detection to identification is completed in seconds.