Identification of Patriot MIM-104 missile defense systems around Iran by Sentinel-1 radar images

Iran is located in one of the most critical regions of the world called the Middle East. Due to its convenient location and abundant energy reserves, this region has always been of interest to foreign countries, led by the United States. This has led to numerous US interventions and the establishment of numerous military bases around Iran, especially after September 11th incident. Continuous monitoring of these bases and related facilities is one of the most important deterrents that can be done by remote sensing knowledge. One of the remote sensing techniques is the synthetic aperture radar, which has been considered in recent years, while the Sentinel-1 satellite launched in 2014 by the European Space Agency uses the same technique. One of the applications of this satellite, which is introduced in this article, is the detection of Patriot MIM-104 systems. This is done by combining the VV and VH polarizations with two images taken during the satellite's day and night transitions from a single point, which are represented by X-shaped lines where the Patriot systems are located. The images related to this satellite are also processed by Google Earth Engine system, which saves considerable time in analysis and increases the accuracy of the results due to the minimization of human error. The results showed that in the regions around Iran and especially in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, there are at least 16 active Patriot systems, which indicates its great development in recent years and shows the need for continuous monitoring of these systems.