AIS data

Automatic identification system (AIS) data are used to identify and track vessels for various purposes (primarily navigational safety). These data can be used to study vessel traffic, such as ship routing and speed over ground (SOG). Source data were obtained from the United States Coast Guard Navigation Center (USCG NAVCEN) for the period from June 2008 to December 2015. Derived data resulting from the processing of the source data are described here. This data set presents annual raster data (1 square kilometer grid size) off California from 2008-2015 for cumulative ship traffic density (kilometers/day) and mean SOG (knots; distance-weighted). The universe of data is limited to vessels with a length greater than or equal to 80 meters. The data are analyzed in three groups: freight vessels (container, general cargo, bulk carrier, refrigerated cargo, vehicle carrier, etc.), tanker vessels (crude oil, chemical/products, liquid petroleum gas, etc.) and all vessels (the previously noted vessels, plus passenger vessels and other vessel classes). The data are contained in a file geodatabase format as raster data sets. Metadata for the overall data set are contained at the level of the file geodatabase. The data were generated and used for a research article (Moore et al. 2018):
Moore, T.J., Redfern, J.V., Carver, M., Hastings, S., Adams, J.D., Silber, G.K., 2018. Exploring Ship Traffic Variability off California. Ocean and Coastal Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.03.010
See this manuscript for more information on the data description, issues, and processing methods.