Enhancing Detection of Nighttime Fishing Boat Lights Using VIIRS Satellite Data and Deep Neural Networks

Illegal nighttime fishing remains difficult to monitor because vessels often deactivate the Automatic Identification System (AIS). This study presents a supervised deep neural network (DNN) approach for detecting nighttime fishing vessel lights using the Day/Night Band (DNB) data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 satellites. The model integrates DNB radiance features with lunar illumination information to reduce false detections caused by moonlight. The dataset comprises summer-season observations (2020–2021) in waters near Jeju Island, South Korea, with labels derived from temporally matched AIS records. The proposed DNN is evaluated using a stratified train–test split and compared with conventional machine-learning baselines. Experimental results demonstrate improved performance, achieving an F1 score above 0.90, indicating the robust detection capability under low-light maritime conditions. These findings highlight the potential of VIIRS DNB data combined with deep learning for large-scale nighttime maritime monitoring beyond AIS-dependent systems.