Free source of AIS data (API)

Question

The automatic identification system (AIS) is an automatic tracking system that uses transponders on ships to locate them. There are also databases that provide information about the ship — size, type, owner, registration, etc.

I need real-time data, preferably for the River Thames or the English Channel. Failing that, Singapore, Hong Kong or any major European (preferably German) river or port. Does anyone know of a free API to access any of this data?

See https://mods.marin.nl/display/MIOD/AIS+Data+Sources – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 03 '20 at 12:31 — Mawg says reinstate Monica, Feb 03 '20 at 12:31

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 05 '21 at 10:21

8

The Norwegian Coastal Administration have an open AIS stream available, licensed under the Norwegian Licence for Open Government Data (NLOD) 2.0.

It's a TCP endpoint that you can access with a tool such as nc and pipe through a decoder like gpsdecode:

nc 153.44.253.27 5631|gpsdecode                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    130 ↵
{"class":"AIS","device":"stdin","type":3,"repeat":0,"mmsi":258201500,"scaled":true,"status":5,"status_text":"Moored","turn":"nan","speed":0.0,"accuracy":true,"lon":16.548040,"lat":68.798587,"course":360.0,"heading":511,"second":48,"maneuver":0,"raim":true,"radio":40442}
{"class":"AIS","device":"stdin","type":1,"repeat":0,"mmsi":257078370,"scaled":true,"status":0,"status_text":"Under way using engine","turn":"fastright","speed":3.8,"accuracy":true,"lon":6.019022,"lat":60.055675,"course":137.0,"heading":166,"second":47,"maneuver":0,"raim":false,"radio":23112}

edited Nov 05 '21 at 10:21

ryanjdillon

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answered Feb 25 '21 at 09:44

Robin Moffatt

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Thanks. This looks useful. Plus, it takes me back to 4 or 5 very pleasant years in Hvalstad :-) – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 25 '21 at 11:56
Do you, by any chance, have a URL for the API documents, in English? My Norwegian has become rusty in 20 years away :-/ – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 25 '21 at 12:00
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Maybe Google Translate could help? IIUC it's just standard AIS data. I used https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/AIVDM.html#_ais_payload_interpretation to interpret it – Robin Moffatt Feb 25 '21 at 12:05
G translate did not help :-( I will email them & ask. BU,T if you can interpolate the data, how did you get hold of it? Is there an API for a live data stream? – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 25 '21 at 12:08
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I've edited my question to include an example – Robin Moffatt Feb 25 '21 at 13:20
That's great, thanks. I have awarded you the answer. I have emailed them to ask if there is an API and will post a comment when I get a reply. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 26 '21 at 21:02
Btw, what part of that data uniquely identifies each vessel? – Mawg says reinstate Monica Feb 27 '21 at 10:43
There is some English documentation of the API for the Barents Watch project; through which this data also appears to be available: https://wiki.barentswatch.net/display/BO/BarentsWatch+Open . Otherwise you'll need to bone up on your Norwegian for the Kystverket API. You need to register as a user of Kystdatahuset and then get an API key: https://kystdatahuset.no/artikkel/api-tilgang – ryanjdillon Nov 04 '21 at 21:23
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If Google Translate is correct, it looks like it just returns data for Norwegian coastal stations, is that correct? – jjmerelo May 03 '23 at 12:19

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 22 '22 at 18:02

Live AIS data for most of the globe is available from https://aisstream.io for free.

The catch is the data is delivered via WebSocket and not a raw tcp connection. There are a few examples in their github of using the api with various languages such as javascript and python.

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 02 '19 at 04:32

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AIS data for the USA is available from https://marinecadastre.gov/ais/.

I don't know about an API, but the site offers a variety of Arc Python-based tools that may lead you to a solution.

answered Jun 02 '19 at 04:32

Stu Smith

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Thanks and upvote.Whiel it's not live, so no use to me, it could be of great use to anyone who wants a mouton of historical data. "The data available below contain records for U.S. coastal waters for calendar years 2009 through 2017. Records are filtered to one minute" *BUT* "Ship name and call sign fields have been removed, and the MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) field has been encrypted for the 2010 through 2014 data" Still very useful, though – Mawg says reinstate Monica Jun 02 '19 at 11:19

Mawg says reinstate Monica · Answer 4 · 2020-03-27T21:37:02.703

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I cannot find anything free. if you want it enough, then you can join AIS hub, BUT they require that you provide a feed before you can share the feeds of all other members.

The cheapest AIS receiver that I can find costs about $60, plus antenna.

If it's worth it, only you can decide.

edited Mar 27 '20 at 21:37

answered May 31 '19 at 17:54

Mawg says reinstate Monica

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 09 '23 at 14:56

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To add to the list of sources mentioned above:

Denmark - https://dma.dk/safety-at-sea/navigational-information/ais-data (https://web.ais.dk/aisdata/)

Finland - https://www.digitraffic.fi/meriliikenne/

answered Dec 09 '23 at 14:56

Graham More

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Thanks for that. The Danish one looks to have an annual fee of approx $200. I am not usre about the Finnish one, although it does not seem to require an API key. The APIs listed on https://www.digitraffic.fi/meriliikenne/#restjson-rajapinnat are in English, and I can feed the rest of the page to Google Translate if required. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Dec 11 '23 at 14:23
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Ah fair point on the danish one not being free for realtime applications, I've only been using the ftp to grab the historical (couple of days delayed) data from the ftp. – Graham More Dec 12 '23 at 15:35
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Sorry just adding another comment regarding Norwegian source above, the https://kystdatahuset.no/ws/swagger/index.html page is useful for exploring the available endpoints. (My rep isn't high enough to comment on that answer :/) – Graham More Dec 12 '23 at 15:38

Free source of AIS data (API)

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