Live ships map

#1

Post by jan-hocevar » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:41 PM UTC

Live ships map
marinetraffic.com

Re: Live ships map

#2

Post by nalidixic » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:06 PM UTC

Extremely cool!

Re: Live ships map

#3

Post by ggchappell » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:13 PM UTC

Very nice, but I had to wonder why, of the thousands of ships whose positions are recorded, only 2 appear to be any significant distance from land. The answer is in the FAQ [1]:

> The MarineTraffic system does not cover all the seas of the world, but only specific coastal areas where a land-based AIS receiver is installed.

[1] http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/faq.aspx?level1=160#16

Re: Live ships map

#4

Post by b_emery » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:27 PM UTC

I'm actually serving data to marinetraffic.com from a receiver near Point Conception, California. The AIS broadcasts in the VHF band so it's basically line of site, plus a bit more because of various scattering effects. We have a receiver on Santa Cruz Island at about 750 ft elevation that gets AIS signals from ships off Mexico (when the conditions are right) - way beyond the quoted range.

The amount of shipping along even our small section of coast boggles the mind. There's a seasonal signal to it also. See [1] for example.

[1] http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/10/la-port-traffic-in...

Re: Live ships map

#5

Post by ruethewhirled » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:33 PM UTC

This is very cool. Great tool for Somalian pirates too?

edit. Ahh never mind they don't seem to have any data on the east coast of Africa

Re: Live ships map

#6

Post by xelfer » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:34 PM UTC

This is great, I live near one of the biggest ports in Australia. Great to be able to identify the ships I can see from my house.

Re: Live ships map

#7

Post by TamDenholm » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:37 PM UTC

ruethewhirled wrote: post #5

This is very cool. Great tool for Somalian pirates too? edit. Ahh never mind they don't seem to have any data on the east coast of Africa

Was just thinking this, the new tool for pirates has got to be a laptop with this site open.

Re: Live ships map

#8

Post by josephjrobison » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:47 PM UTC

ruethewhirled wrote: post #5

This is very cool. Great tool for Somalian pirates too? edit. Ahh never mind they don't seem to have any data on the east coast of Africa

Maybe everyone's too scared to take a boat of the coast of Somalia?

Also notice the ridiculous amount of ships of of Iran's coast!

Re: Live ships map

#9

Post by artursapek » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:50 PM UTC

Wow. Notice the complete lack of anything around North Korea.

Re: Live ships map

#10

Post by blantonl » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:53 PM UTC

ruethewhirled wrote: post #5

This is very cool. Great tool for Somalian pirates too? edit. Ahh never mind they don't seem to have any data on the east coast of Africa

They don't have any data for the east coast of Africa because there probably aren't any receivers setup to receive AIS signals in that area.