Exploring the context of maritime SAR missions using visual data mining techniques

The environmental conditions in the Gulf of Finland vary significantly in different locations. In addition, the gulf is a busy and important area for waterway traffic and international trade throughout the year. In summer, the area is ideal for recreational activities such as boating and other water-related activities. Water accidents occur due to different factors and under varying weather conditions. This paper introduces a visual data mining analysis applied to Search and Rescue (SAR) missions related to recreational boating. Starting from a SAR operations database, an integrated database was constructed by adding weather and wave data. The aim was to compare the different mission types as well as the activity of different SAR organisations during challenging wind and wave conditions. The investigation was performed using visual analysis techniques. The densest areas of challenging wind and wave conditions were found in the western and eastern parts of the gulf. Other investigated parameters were travelled distances and occurrence of the incidents during different times of day. A more detailed analysis was conducted for one dataset.