Basin-Wide Maritime Awareness From Multi-Source Ship Reporting Data

Abstract

A system was set up to ingest automatic ship position reports (terrestrial and satellite Automatic Identification System (AIS), Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)) and fuse these into a Maritime Situational Picture, tracking the ships within an ocean basin-wide area of interest in real time. Trial runs were made over several months, collecting reporting data from a number of different sources, over the Gulf of Aden and the Western Indian Ocean. Also satellite radar surveillance was carried out in order to sample the presence of non-reporting ships. The trial showed that satellite AIS is a powerful tool for basin-wide ship traffic monitoring; that multiple AIS satellites are needed for sufficient completeness and update rate; and that coastal AIS and LRIT still provide essential complements to the satellite AIS data. The radar survey showed that about half of the radar-detected ships are not seen in the reporting data. The ultimate purpose of this work is to support the countries around the Horn of Africa in the fight against piracy and to help build their capacity to deliver maritime security and safety.