Nationwide AIS: 2012 U.S. Vessel Traffic and Voyage Data
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Description
NOAA's 2012 United States Automatic Identification System Database contains vessel traffic data for U.S. coastal waters, including the Exclusive Economic Zone. The data is organized into 216 monthly File Geodatabases by UTM zone, each containing position reports filtered to a one-minute time step, voyage details, and vessel-specific static data. This dataset supports coastal management, planning, and analysis of maritime activity.
Use Cases
Maritime traffic pattern analysis based on one-minute position reports.
Coastal and marine spatial planning using geospatial vessel tracks.
Vessel voyage reconstruction and profiling based on linked voyage and vessel tables.
Infrastructure planning for ports and renewable energy using traffic density data.
Environmental impact assessment of shipping activities within the Exclusive Economic Zone.
Strengths
Data is pre-filtered to a consistent one-minute reporting frequency for position reports.
Contains 216 self-contained geodatabases providing structured, relational data across months and UTM zones.
Includes linked static data (vessel and voyage details) alongside dynamic position broadcasts.
Limitations
Metadata completeness is low: specific column names, row counts, file sizes, and license information are not provided.
The 'last updated' date (2026-04-10) is inconsistent with the dataset's title and described content (2012, 2019).
Documentation gaps exist regarding data collection methods, filtering specifics, and potential coverage gaps.
Provenance
Source
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce, in collaboration with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and U.S. Coast Guard.
Collection Method
Collected from the U.S. Coast Guard's national network of AIS receivers, filtered to a one-minute frequency, and subset to the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
Time Range
2012 (primary described year), with a conflicting reference to 2019 in the shared title.
Freshness
2026-04-10 19:48:39.598749
Geography
United States coastal waters, Exclusive Economic Zone, and Outer Continental Shelf, covering UTM zones 1-11 and 14-20.
The dataset title ('Nationwide Automatic Identification System 2019') conflicts with the detailed descriptions which specify the year 2012. Data is provided in File Geodatabase (FGDB) format.