The Joint Research Centre is supporting the Italian authorities in monitoring the movements of the cruise ship that grounded off in Tuscany with an innovative radar system. Data on the ship movements have been of fundamental importance during the search and rescue operations and will remain crucial when the fuel is pumped off the ship's tanks.

An innovative radar system developed by the Joint Research Centre from the European Commission is being used at the Giglio Island in Italy to support the Italian authorities in monitoring the movements of the Costa Concordia ship that grounded off Tuscany on 13th January. The MELISSA system is an innovative and low-cost radar imaging system that allows for the detection of movements of objects with very high accuracy and resolution. The Commission recently announced that will review EU passenger ship safety legislation in relation to the Costa Concordia accident.

This JRC system has contributed enormously to increase the reliability of the monitoring of the ship movements. MELISSA can take measurements up to 140 times a second to detect movements with high accuracy. The installation on the Giglio Island takes a picture twice a second and measures more than 100 points of the ship.

During the search and rescue operations and when the fuel is pumped off the ship's tanks, taking data on the ship movements have been fundamental. In addition, the system is compact, portable and easily deployable and can work day and night under any weather conditions.