**2. Outline**

The primary role of the remote sensing is to provide a secondary source of information for the MSR operations. A remote sensing monitoring system can, to some extent, overcome the shortcomings and inadequacies of human eyes. It can also improve the searching speed and accuracy, and is of significance in promoting rescue success rate and efficiency. It can aid the rescuers to fulfill the task of search and rescue, especially for small targets, such as persons in distress and life boats, and could provide a good detection and identification result.

#### **2.1 Introduction to the system functions**

According to the requirement of search and rescue, a Remote Sensing Monitoring System for Maritime Search and Rescue (RS-MSR) is designed. Table 1 illustrates the main functions of a RS-MSR system.


Table 1. The main functions of a RS-MSR system required
