Nationwide AIS Data: Vessel Locations in U.S. Waters, 2020

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone vessel data from 2020, filtered to a one-minute frequency. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management jointly provide these records from the U.S. Coast Guard's national AIS receiver network. The data transmits vessel location and characteristics in real-time for navigation safety and coastal management.

Use Cases

• Model maritime traffic patterns based on real-time vessel location broadcasts.
• Analyze vessel density for coastal management and environmental planning purposes.
• Study navigation safety and vessel behavior within the Exclusive Economic Zone.
• Support maritime domain awareness and logistics optimization based on AIS transmissions.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative U.S. Coast Guard national AIS receiver network.
• Records are processed to a standardized one-minute frequency for temporal consistency.
• Spatial coverage is explicitly defined as the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from 2020; freshness should be verified for current applications.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Filtered and subset records from the U.S. Coast Guard's national network of AIS receivers.

Time Range

2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:48:34.264684; freshness should be verified

Geography

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone