Vessel traffic data, or Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, are collected by the U.S. Coast Guard through an onboard navigation safety device that transmits and monitors the location and characteristics of vessels in U.S. and international waters in real time. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center have worked jointly to repurpose and make available some of the most important records from the U.S. Coast Guard’s national network of AIS receivers. Information such as location, time, vessel type, speed, length, beam, and draft have been extracted from the raw data and prepared for analyses in desktop GIS software.
Get Data
These AIS data can be accessed through the AccessAIS tool or through the download links below. Please see the FAQ page for more information about AIS data. Note that MarineCadastre.gov does not have access to LIVE AIS data feeds, or more recent data than what is provided on this webpage.
Explore Data with AccessAIS
View and download by user-defined dates and areas.
Download by Data Set
Download by predefined dates and areas.
The data available below contains records for U.S. coastal waters for calendar years 2009 through 2023. Records for 2009 through 2014 are filtered to one minute and formatted in zipped, monthly files by Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) zone. View the index map of UTM zones for an area of interest. For records from 2010 through 2014, ship name and call sign fields have been removed, and the MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) field has been encrypted at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard. These data are stored and distributed in the file geodatabase format.
Beginning in 2015, the Authoritative Vessel Identification Service (AVIS) was used to correct select fields that had either missing or outdated values, and the practice of encrypting the MMSI was stopped. These data are stored and distributed in comma separated variable (CSV) format. Records for 2015 through 2023 are filtered to one minute and formatted in zipped, daily files for all U.S. coastal waters. Information on all AIS point data can be found within the Point Data Summary document.
Users can now download a full year of AIS data using the links below.
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AIS Broadcast Points 2009 (204 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2010 (204 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2011 (204 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2012 (216 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2013 (216 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2014 (216 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2015 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2016 (366 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2017 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2018 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2019 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2020 (366 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2021 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2022 (365 Files)
AIS Broadcast Points 2023
- 2011 tracks: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2013 tracks: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2015 tracks: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2016 tracks: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2017 tracks: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2018 tracks: Atlantic, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, West Coast
2019 tracks: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2019/AISVesselTracks2019.zip
2020 tracks: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2020/AISVesselTracks2020.zip
2021 tracks: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2021/AISVesselTracks2021.zip
2022 tracks: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2022/AISVesselTracks2022.zip
- 2011 Vessel Density: East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast
2013 Vessel Density: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2013/VesselDensity2013.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2015: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2015/VesselTransitCounts2015.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2016: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2016/VesselTransitCounts2016.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2017: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2017/VesselTransitCounts2017.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2018: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2018/AISVesselTransitCounts2018.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2019: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2019/AISVesselTransitCounts2019.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2020: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2020/AISVesselTransitCounts2020.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2021: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2021/AISVesselTransitCounts2021.zip
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2022: https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/ais/ais2022/AISVesselTransitCounts2022.zip
- AIS Vessel Traffic 2015 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2016 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2017 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2018 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2019 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2020 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2021 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2022 metadata
AIS Vessel Traffic 2023 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2015 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2016 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2017 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2018 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2019 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2020 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2021 metadata
AIS Vessel Tracklines 2022 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2015 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2016 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2017 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2018 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2019 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2020 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2021 metadata
AIS Vessel Transit Counts 2022 metadata
For assistance, please email us at MarineCadastre@noaa.gov.
The Tools
The tools below are designed to help analysts process the data and derive products that improve offshore site analysis, use-conflict studies, and the understanding of marine transportation patterns.
AccessAIS
This web-based tool enables users to interactively download U.S. vessel traffic data across user-defined geographies and time periods. It also provides quick visualization of vessel traffic densities and patterns using underlying map services derived from the same point data that are available for download via the application.
ArcGIS Pro Track Builder Pro 1.0
This toolbox converts vessel positions into track lines and track lines into a grid. Each grid cell reports the total number of times a vessel has passed through it. Input data can be in either a CSV format or an existing file geodatabase.
Technical Specifications
- Requires ArcGIS Pro 1.2.x or above with a Spatial Analyst license
- Data must be in point format and include a date-time and unique identifier fields
Help Documents
ArcGIS Desktop Track Builder 3.1
This toolbox reads and converts a collection of point features into a track line. Input data can be either in a CSV format or in an existing file geodatabase. This tool is especially useful for processing Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from the MarineCadastre.gov. For users with very large files, a command-line tool is also included that is optimized for 64-bit processing. AIS track lines can be used to generate maps of vessel traffic for transportation analysis and coastal and ocean planning.
Technical Specifications
- Requires ArcGIS 10.1 or later
- Data must be in point format and include a date-time and unique identifier fields
- While this tool can be used with any data set that fits the above requirement, it was developed to be used with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data published by MarineCadastre.gov
Acknowledgments
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center