Download bulk historical AIS vessel-traffic data from NOAA MarineCadastre

domain: marinecadastre.gov / coast.noaa.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. No API key is required; use the AccessAIS tool (marinecadastre.gov/accessais) or the bulk-download site to locate the year/month/zone file you need.
  2. Download the relevant file: pre-2015 data is geodatabase format, 2015+ data is CSV (Zstd-compressed, filtered to one-minute intervals), and 2024-2025 data is also offered as GeoParquet in cloud storage.
  3. Decompress/read the file according to its format (CSV vs GeoParquet vs geodatabase) using standard tooling for that format.
  4. Cross-reference the accompanying documentation/metadata (via InPort) for field definitions, since schemas evolved across the year ranges.
  5. Filter/aggregate the downloaded records locally (by MMSI, vessel type, geographic zone, or date), since this is bulk offline data, not a live query API.

Known gotchas

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