U.S. Vessel Locations and Characteristics from AIS, 2022

NOAA and BOEM provide nationwide Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from the U.S. Coast Guard's receiver network. The dataset contains real-time location and descriptive information for vessels broadcasting within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, filtered to a one-minute frequency. It was last updated on the platform in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling maritime traffic patterns based on real-time vessel location data.
• Assessing environmental risk for coastal management based on vessel density and movement.
• Supporting navigation safety analysis based on vessel characteristics and broadcast data.

Strengths

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

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Available file formats are listed as PDF and HTML, which may not be optimal for direct computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Transmitted and monitored by vessel AIS devices, collected by the U.S. Coast Guard and industry, and jointly processed by NOAA and BOEM.

Time Range

2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:48:30.122746; freshness should be verified.

Geography

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone