Tracking Ship Traffic with Space-Based AIS:

Experience Gained in First Months of Operations

Torkild Eriksen, Andreas Nordmo Skauen, Bjørn Narheim, Øystein Helleren, Øystein Olsen and Richard B. Olsen.
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)
Kjeller, Norway

torkild.eriksen@ffi.no, andreas-nordmo.skauen@ffi.no, bjorn-t.narheim@ffi.no, oystein.helleren@ffi.no, oystein.olsen@ffi.no,

richard.olsen@ffi.no

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is based on VHF
radio transmissions of ships’ identity, position, speed and
heading, in addition to other key parameters. In 2004, the
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) undertook
studies to evaluate if the AIS signals could be detected in low
Earth orbit. Since then, the interest in Space-Based AIS reception
has grown significantly, and both public and private sector
organizations have established programs to study the issue, and
demonstrate such a capability in orbit.
FFI is conducting two such programs. The objective of the first
program was to launch a nano-satellite equipped with an AIS
receiver into a near polar orbit, to demonstrate Space-Based AIS
reception at high latitudes. The satellite was launched from India
12th July 2010. Even though the satellite has not finished
commissioning, the receiver is operated with real-time
transmission of received AIS data to the Norwegian Coastal
Administration.
The second program is an ESA-funded project to operate an AIS
receiver on the European Columbus module of the International
Space Station. Mounting of the equipment, the NORAIS
receiver, was completed in April 2010. Currently, the AIS
receiver has operated for more than three months, picking up
several million AIS messages from more than 60 000 ship
identities.
In this paper, we will present experience gained with the space-
based AIS systems, highlight aspects of tracking ships throughout
their voyage, and comment on possible contributions to port
security.
At that time the universal shipborne Automatic
Identification System (AIS) was entering into force. AIS is a
transponder system broadcasting dynamic, static and voyage
related reports from a ship to all other installations in a self-
organized manner. In Norway a coastal network of AIS base
stations was established to enhance the shore-side Vessel
Traffic Services (VTS) applications. FFI made a feasibility
study on space-based AIS [1] to investigate whether the use of
AIS for maritime traffic monitoring could be extended to the
high seas. The conclusion was that the reception of AIS
messages in space was feasible, but areas with high traffic
density would be a challenge.
This year, 2010, FFI has started operations of two AIS
receivers in low Earth orbit: The NORAIS receiver on the
International Space Station started operations 1st June and
AISSat-1 was launched 12th July. The two receivers have
somewhat different coverage areas due to the different
inclination and altitude of the orbits, see Figure 1. The data
received the first months of operations show high numbers of
ships outside the range of terrestrial AIS networks.
In addition to supporting operations on the high seas these
ship tracks are also of importance for waterside security.
Protecting ports, harbours and coastal waters, the in-advance
information on which ships and what cargo is under way is
crucial for maritime situational awareness. In the following
some properties of the AIS system as well as the first results
from the use of the space-based AIS receivers are presented.

Keywords - space-based AIS; ship detection; ship tracking;

AISSat-1; NORAIS receiver

I. INTRODUCTION
Norway has an ocean area seven times larger than the land
area. Patrolling these waters is a challenging task. Since 1998
radar satellite images have been used to support the planning
and operations of the Coast Guard and other authorities
responsible for the safety at sea, fisheries protection and
national security. After the first enthusiasm for the white dots
representing detected ships, the statement from the operational
Figure 1. The NORAIS receiver on ISS (340km altitude 52inclination) and
headquarters was: Now you must provide more information on AISSat-1 (630 km SSO).
which ships these dots are.

AISSat-1 is sponsored by the Norwegian Space Centre.

The NORAIS experiment is sponsored by the European Space Agency.
 II. THE AIS-SYSTEM Mobile stations periodically broadcast reports using one of
Some knowledge about the AIS standard with the different 27 message types, which can be grouped into the categories of
types of messages and the transmission intervals, as well as the TABLE I. The dynamic messages are of particular interest to
two classes of shipborne mobile equipment, is required to large-area ocean surveillance, as they are reported often and
understand the results. The following sections give a brief contain a ship’s identity and position. Reporting intervals for
introduction to the carriage requirements and the operational dynamic messages from class A stations are shown in TABLE
and technical characteristics of AIS. This also motivates for the II. All messages use the Maritime Mobile Service Identities
understanding of the work on the next generation AIS receiver, (MMSI) number as source ID.
as well as a revision of the standard to include a new message
for space-based AIS in the future. TABLE I. CLASS A SHIPBORNE MOBILE EQUIPMENT MASSAGE TYPES
Message type Description Reporting
A. Reporting requirements interval
The requirements for AIS are outlined in Regulation 19 of Static ship IMO number, call sign & 6 min
Chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of name, length & beam, etc.
Dynamic position, time, course over ground, 2 sec to 3 min
Life at Sea (SOLAS) [2]. The carriage requirement for class A speed over ground, heading, etc. depending on
shipborne mobile equipment include all passenger ships, dynamic
tankers and other ships of 300 tons engaged in international conditions, see
voyages, as well as all ships of 500 tons or more in national TABLE II.
voyages. The requirements state that: Voyage destination, cargo type, waypoints, 6 min
etc.
“AIS shall: Safety safety related text as required
Binary data transmission as required
1. provide automatically to appropriately equipped Control time synchronisation as required
shore stations, other ships and aircraft information, Long-range position, course over ground 3 min
including the ship's identity, type, position, course, applicationa (COG), speed over ground (SOG)
speed, navigational status and other safety-related a. SAT-AIS message introduced in revision 4 [3]

information;
2. receive automatically such information from similarly Class B messages have longer reporting intervals than class
fitted ships; A [3] when moving; the shortest reporting interval is 30 sec for
3. monitor and track ships; and equipment using carrier-sense TDMA (CSTDMA), and 5 sec
4. exchange data with shore-based facilities.” for equipment using self-organized TDMA (SOTDMA)
moving faster than 23 knots.
In addition, the IMO Performance Standards for AIS state: Static and voyage related data for class A equipment and
the extended class B position report is transmitted once every
"The AIS should be capable of providing to ships and to 6 min in two slots.
competent authorities, information from the ship,
automatically and with the required accuracy and
frequency, to facilitate accurate tracking...” TABLE II. CLASS A SHIPBORNE MOBILE EQUIPMENT
REPORTING INTERVALS FOR DYNAMIC MESSAGES
Class B equipment is used by pleasure craft, fishing boats and
Ship's dynamic conditions Reporting
other vessels smaller than 300 tons, but is not mandatory. interval
Ship at anchor or moored and not moving faster than 3 min
B. Operational characteristics 3 knots
The AIS system was developed as a ship-to-ship and ship- Ship at anchor or moored and moving faster than 3 10 s
knots
to-shore system, but has now got an update for ship-to-satellite Ship 0-14 knots 10 s
in the revision 4 of the ITU-recommendation [3]. This section Ship 0-14 knots and changing course 3 1/3 s
presents an overview of the AIS standard with emphasis on the Ship 14-23 knots 6s
characteristics of the transponders in use today, whereas the Ship 14-23 knots and changing course 2s
next section presents the new message for SAT-AIS. Ship > 23 knots 2s
Ship > 23 knots and changing course 2s
The mobile AIS station onboard the ship consists of VHF
radio equipment connected to the bridge system and the
satellite navigation system (e.g. GPS). The reporting is based C. Technical characteristics
on broadcast of fixed-length digital messages. The packet is
The technical characteristics determine the signal on the
256 bits long and fits into one of 4500 time slots per minute.
data link. A summary of performance requirements for the
Several types of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
physical layer is given in TABLE III.
access schemes are used to allocate time slots and avoid
overlap of transmissions within the AIS station’s coverage
area.
 TABLE III. EXTRACT OF TECNICAL CHARACTERISTICS FOR CLASS A The first challenge applies to detection of ships in all waters
SHIPBORNE MOBILE EQUIPMENT the satellite covers, and is simply solved using a more sensitive
Parameter Characteristics receiver in space than in the shipborne equipment.
Frequencies AIS 1: 161.975 MHz (channel 87B)
AIS 2: 162.025 MHz (channel 88B)
The second challenge is dependent on the number of
Transmitter power 1 and 12.5 W messages transmitted from within the entire field of view. The
Bandwidth 12.5 and 25.0 kHz co-channel interference resulting from transmissions from
Frame length 1 minute (2250 messages) densely trafficked waters is a greater challenge to decoding of
Message length 26.7 ms (256 bits) messages than the weak signals, and the problem is sought
Capacity 4500 messages/min (for the two AIS channels) solved several ways:
Bit rate 9600 bit/s
Synchronization UTC • Decoding at lower difference in signals strength
Access schemes SOTDMA, ITDMA, RATDMA, FATDMA, between the strongest and the interfering signal
CSTDMA (referred to as desired-to-undesired signal ratio, D/U).
Distance delay 12 bits, equivalent to 202 nm
• Directional antennas that give a narrower field of view.
By default, mobile stations transmissions should alternate • Use of a dedicated transmission method for a long-
between AIS 1 and AIS 2. For class A equipment a transmitter range AIS broadcast message from ship to satellite.
power of 12.5 W and bandwidth of 25 kHz are default settings.
Class B equipment operate at 2 W in 25 kHz channels. FFI has developed the system simulator AISDET for
calculation of ship detection performance for space-based AIS
The link layer specifies how the data is packaged, the message reception. The simulator takes into account the global
access management, the system synchronization, as well as ship distribution, models the vessels’ allocations of SOTDMA
message types and descriptions. transmission time slots, the specification of the receiver
The system package data within frames that are 1 minute (antenna pattern, decoding algorithm), the satellite orbit, and
long and divided into 2250 time slots, so the two frequencies the ground stations (necessary to calculate the update intervals
give 4500 slots per min. The slot length is 26.7 ms or 256 bits for delivery of data).
at 9.6 kbit/s. AISDET calculates the performance for individual
The message entry is synchronized to the coordinated receivers and satellite passes. The results can be aggregated for
universal time (UTC). Access is managed using one of four satellite constellations and user-specified update intervals, and
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) access schemes. Self- the number of observations above a user-specified confidence
organized TDMA (SOTDMA) is the basic access scheme used level can be calculated. The simulator has been used
for scheduled repetitive transmissions from an autonomous extensively in national as well as European projects.
station. The access scheme allocates time slots and resolves The long-range AIS broadcast message, message 27, has a
potential conflicts autonomously. modified packet structure relative to the position reports in
The 12 delay bits prevent problems with overlapping message type 1, 2 and 3. The data field is 96 bits containing
messages due to different signal path lengths up to a range of position, course over ground (COG), and speed over ground
374 km. This is useful also for the space-based application. (SOG). This is 72 bits shorter than the other reports. Hence the
buffer to cover for distance delay is 84 rather than 12 bits, and
the problem with overlapping messages due to different path
III. SPACE-BASED AIS
lengths is extended to 2600 km.
The communications range of the AIS system is similar to
other VHF applications, and is mainly dependent on line-of-
IV. THE AISSAT-1 SYSTEM
sight communication between the transmitting and receiving
station. A typical range for the network of AIS base stations AISSat-1 was launched on the 12th of July 2010 into a sun-
along the coast is 40-60 nautical miles or 75-110 km; giving synchronous polar orbit at 630 km altitude. The nano-satellite
the maximum radius of the area within which the allocation of is a Norwegian demonstrator for monitoring of vessel traffic in
time slots is self organized. the High North. The plot in Figure 2. shows AIS reports from
the first pass over the High North; yellow and pink symbols
Space-based AIS receivers face two challenges with respect show the new satellite data that is an addition to the data from
to decoding of the signals: the land-based network shown in turquoise symbols.
• The AIS signals are weaker than on the surface of the The main aim of the AISSat-1 mission is to provide a pilot
Earth due to the increased path length. service to Norwegian Government agencies. The performance
• Several signals may be received simultaneously predicted for a somewhat higher orbit is shown in Figure 3.
because the space-based receiver sees a large number The plot shows the probability of receiving one message from
of areas that are not mutually organized with respect to ships around the world once a day. The colour legend has red
the use of time slots. (or 1) for 100 % detection probability. The predicted detection
probability in the High North, as well as most other high seas,
is very good. The low-probability areas shown in blue are
 Figure 2. The first AIS data from AISSat-1. The yellow and pink symbols
show the new AIS data that the satellite give in addition to the data from the
land-based network shown in turquoise symbols.
associated with high traffic densities; central Europe as well as
the Gulf of Mexico and south-east Asia are such ocean areas.
The performance predictions along with the prospect of
pilot services from a national controlled nano-satellite made the
Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) start the AISSat-1
development in 2007. FFI has been responsible for the
development as well as the operations. The Norwegian Coastal
Administration (NCA), being the national agency responsible
the AIS data in Norwegian waters, receives the AIS data. The
software defined radio AIS receiver is developed by Kongsberg
Seatex, a leading manufacturer of marine systems.
The AIS sensor receives and decodes AIS-messages for
subsequent downlink to the ground station at Svalbard. The
payload may operate either in a direct downlink mode when
within line of sight of Svalbard, or record the data on board for
download at the first opportunity. The recording capability
enables the satellite to make observations anywhere in the
world. Downlinking the data at Svalbard reduces data latency
to a minimum, as the satellite can communicate with SvalSat
ground station on every orbit.
Figure 3. Predicted global ship detection performance for AISSat-1 for an
update interval of one day.
Figure 4. shows the communications architecture. The
satellite is controlled by FFI, located near Oslo, Norway. The
SvalSat ground station at Svalbard is operated by Kongsberg
Satellite Services (KSAT). The NCA is the main recipient of
AISSat-1 data, and makes the data available through the same
mechanisms as for terrestrial AIS data.
Figure 4. AISSat-1 communications architecture.
Since the launch, the satellite has been undergoing
extensive tests as part of the commissioning phase. All tests to
date have been successful, including acquisitions of global data
sets. From its near-polar orbit AISSat-1 has global coverage
after 7 orbits, or approximately 11 hours. When operated for 24
hours, coverage is achieved two (to three) times at equator and
an increasing number of times to the maximum of 15 times in
the High North and also down south. Typically ~500 000
messages from ~20 000 ships are received daily. Figure 5.
shows that the ship detection capability is good on global scale.
In general the detection performance is good at the high seas,
whereas a somewhat reduced performance is seen in the
Mediterranean, where the plot would have been packed if all
ships were detected. The achieved detection performance
seems to be better than expected from the early predictions.
With emphasis on the High North area of interest the
number of daily updates, with a confidence of 95% detection
probability in individual satellite passes, is shown in Figure 6.
Around Svalbard the ships should be seen in all 15 passes per
day, shown in red. The predicted number of observations is
decreasing to 9 down at the mainland and to 5 along a line that
goes from Lofoten, north of Iceland, to the south tip of
Greenland. AIS data from 10 consecutive passes is shown in
Figure 7. It both shows the extent of the area covered, and that
the detection performance in the High North is very reliable. In
the High North ~50 000 position reports from ~3 200 ships are
received daily.
Figure 5. Screen shot from the NCA web-application for AIS data showing
the ships detected during one global coverage that takes ~11 hours. Note that
coastal AIS data is also plotet in northern Europe.

Figure 6. Daily observations map at > 95 % detection probability.
Detections plotted like pearls on a string represent the same
ship detected in consecutive passes. This shows that the
performance is good not only in the High North, but also in the
north Atlantic. Only in the south part of the North Sea and in
Baltic the performance is close to zero, but from an operational
point of view these waters are to a large extent covered by
coastal AIS base stations.
Figure 7. AIS data from 10 consevutive passes
V. THE VESSEL ID SYSTEM
The Vessel ID System on the International Space Station
(ISS) is a European Space Agency (ESA) project initiated mid
2008. A tight development schedule was imposed due to a
window of opportunity for installing the system on board ISS,
as well as mounting the VHF antenna on the outside of the
Columbus module. In order to comply with the schedule
requirements, the NORAIS receiver design was adapted from
the AIS receiver designed for deployment on AISSat-1. ESA
initiated the project as a technology experiment to perform
early space-based AIS data collection and in-orbit evaluation
for the development of a European space-based AIS system.
The project has been led by FFI with support from ESA’s
General Support Technical Programme (GSTP).
The NORAIS receiver was commissioned 1st of June 2010,
and has been operated almost continuously for more than three
months. The AIS data are downlinked via the ISS data
network, forwarded to the Columbus Control Centre, then to
the Norwegian User Operations Centre (N-USOC) in
Trondheim, Norway. FFI retrieve data files hourly with a
latency of three hours.
From the 52 inclination, 340 km altitude, orbit of the ISS
the receiver has ground coverage from 68 north to 68 south.
Figure 8. shows a global overview of position reports received
with NORAIS during 24 hours, 29th June 2010. The ship
detection seems to be in agreement with the predictions: Ships
are detected in the high seas around the world, but in the North
Sea and in Baltic the performance is close to zero, and outside
China there is also a blind spot.
The average number of position reports is ~350 000 per
day, whereas the number of distinct MMSI’s in the position
reports per day is ~22 000. Altogether more than 60 000 ships
have been detected.
Figure 8. Position reports received from NORAIS during 24 hours, 29th June
2010. Predicted detection probability shown below.
VI. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS
The space-based AIS data received from the two receivers
show high numbers of ships on the high seas outside range of
terrestrial AIS networks. The data have been used in
operational contexts as well as for technical evaluation. A
computation of the actual global ship detection probability is
not made yet, but examples of detection and tracking is given
for some cases.
A. Global ship tracking
Of particular interest to port and other authorities are the
ships that will arrive in their harbour or jurisdiction. For a
particular ship concerns may be whether the ship made a direct
route, stopped somewhere or met with some other vessel at
sea? Harbour masters, police, customs and other authorities
would pay interest to abnormal incidents related to the ship, its
cargo or its crew.
An example of a ship on its way to La Spezia is shown in
Figure 9. A voyage report with destination La Spezia is
received from a bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean on 18th July
2010. Backtracking, we see that the ship had several ports of
call in East Asia the previous month. From the 18th July the
ship is tracked with position updates several times a day in the
open oceans as well as close to African coasts without any sign
of deviation from normal activity or the reported route. The 2-
days gap in the data set just after the Cape of Good Hope is due
to a temporary shut-down of the AIS receiver and some of its
support systems on ISS. Figure 10. Ship track for one week near equator through the Strait of Malacca.

Figure 11. Ship track for one week acrossing equator oustide West Africa.

Figure 9. Ship tracked from the far East to La Spezia.

The satellite orbit determines the number of passes over an

area per day. The lowest number is at equator, where the
average number of coverage’s per day is 3. Investigating the
detection performance along the route, we have 16 passes from
Borneo, through the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean
during one week, see Figure 10. The maximum should be about
21 since this is close to equator, but detection is not achieved in
each pass because of the co-channel interference caused by the
high number of ships in the area.
When passing West Africa the ship is also near equator, but
this time the ship is detected in 27 passes during one week.
This is all the passes in the period, as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 12. shows the track outside Madagascar and South
Africa, near 30 south. The ship is detected in 39 passes. The
daily average in this area is 7 passes or less per day, hence the
expected maximum number should be less than 40.
Figure 12. Ship track for one week at 30 south outside Madagscar and South
Afica.
Outside North Africa and in the Mediterranean, see Figure
13. the ship is detected in 22 passes. This is a fairly broad
region around 30 north, and the maximum number of passes is
~40 as for the region around 30 south. Again we see the
problem of co-channel interference reducing the detection
performance, especially in European waters. In the north of the
Mediterranean the ship cannot be tracked with the space-based
AIS reviver. For operational purposed, the tracking should be
with the coastal network in the region.

Figure 13. Ship track for one week when entering the Mediterreanean.
The number message type 5 reports, containing destination
and estimated time of arrival (ETA), is 16 for the voyage from
South East Asia to La Spezia. The lower number of voyage
reports is due to the transmission scheme of the different types
of messages: Voyage reports are sent once every 6 minutes,
position reports typically every 6 seconds. Further, the voyage
reports occupy two consecutive time slots that both have to be
received successfully, whereas the position reports only occupy
one time slot.
The example in Figure 14. shows a ship travelling from
Panama reporting its destination is Marseille. The ship passes
through the Caribbean Sea where it stops at the Little Antilles
before it continuous across the Atlantic. Just before the Canary
Islands no more AIS reports are received. Did the ship switch
off the transponder, and in case for what reason? From a
maritime picture point of view the ship should now be in range
of the Spanish Vessel Tracking Services on the Canary Islands,
so the ship may be tracked by AIS base stations or detected by
other means of observation. Land based radar, or at the high
seas radar satellite, would be candidate sensor system in the
operational context. The ship later appears in the NORAIS data
on its way into the Mediterranean. See also section 0 for a trial
using radar satellite imagery and AIS.
Figure 14. Track of a ship having unreported stops when crossing the North
Atlantic.
B. Fishery protection
The monitoring and inspection of fishing vessels is to a
large extent based on the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), a
mandatory reporting system for the fishing fleet. Reefer ships
used in transshipment of catch on the open seas are not covered
by VMS, and violation of the laws of fishery has been difficult
to detect and prove. Space-based AIS gives the possibility of
detecting transshipment of catch. Figure 15. shows the
situational picture on the fishing grounds in the north, with a
zoom on a trawler and a reefer in the lower left corner. The
ships were side-by side from the fisheries protection zone
around Svalbard and into the international waters known as the
Loop Hole. The transshipment of catch is not illegal, but the
catch as such must be according to quotas and the delivery by
the reefer should be reported. In this case, the catch was
delivered in West Africa, and the Norwegian fisheries
authorities now have a case with the local authorities of the
port state.
Figure 15. Sitution picture from the fishing grounds in the norht. fisheries
authorities.
C. Counter Piracy
The safety and security of ships in the Gulf of Aden and the
Indian Ocean is high priority both to ship owners and
authorities. Figure 16. shows that a high number of ships
follows the International Recommended Transit Corridor
(IRTC) in the Gulf of Aden, but only a very limited number of
AIS reports are received from vessels outside Somalia. There
may be two reasons for the low number of vessels in the
Somali Basin: Either the AIS is turned off, the master of the
ship has the right to switch of the AIS for the safety of the ship,
Figure 16. Horn of Africa, 24 hours, 29th June 2010.
or ships are taking other routes whenever possible. The
reporting of ship positions on the Long Range Identification
and Tracking system LRIT is increased to reporting every hour
in an anti-piracy polygon in the region. The LRIT reporting
mainly uses Inmarsat, and cannot be picked up easily by
pirates. Hence the use of AIS may be limited to convoys or
other situations where the use of the system is considered a
greater means of safety than the risk of being spotted and
attacked by pirates based on the AIS reports.
D. Data product with AIS and radar-satellite image.
Trials with high resolution radar-satellite imagery and AIS
data have been made recently. Figure 17. shows data from a
trial in the Malangen area, near Tromsø, in northern Norway.
The results are reported in the paper “Ship Detection using
High Resolution Satellite Imagery and Space-Based AIS” [4].
Ship detections made in high resolution Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) images from RADARSAT-2 were compared to
AIS reports from the coastal network as well as data from
AISSat-1. In the extracted part of the SAR image from 19th
September shown below, three of seven ships were detected
with AISSat-1, whereas all were reporting according to data
from the coastal network. The reasons for the low detection
ratio may be several: Shadows due to the high mountains in
this area, ships reporting on AIS class B equipment, and co-
channel interference caused by ships in the North Sea.
Figure 17. RADARSAT-2 Standard Quad-Pol image from September 19th in
HH-polarization. The image shows seven ships that are detected in the SAR
image and confirmed by aisonline.com (from [4]).
E. Post processing of AIS messages
The received AIS messages are checked for correctness by
verifying the checksum at the end of the message. If part of the
message is received wrongly, the checksum will not be correct.
For the pilot services from AISSat-1 only data with confirmed
checksum is disseminated. However, ongoing work on data
recovery shows that ~20% more reports can be made available
after post processing of the messages received with valid
preamble but erroneous checksum. In the example with the
ship track to La Spezia such correction is applied. Among
others, the very last message received in the Mediterranean has
been corrected using such post processing.
F. Preparatory work for long-range AIS
Work has been done in the standardisation organisations to
extend the AIS standard to include long-range (or satellite)
reporting. This application should use the dedicated long-range
message, type 27, and the transmission should alternate
between two new channels every 3 minutes. This is to avoid
the co-channel interference from densely trafficked waters.
Two frequencies are suggested for the purpose. Figure 18.
shows the measured signal level on the proposed AIS 3 channel
(156.775 MHz), and it is evident that there is some use of this
frequency on land around the world.
Figure 18. Map of signal strength on the proposed long-range channel AIS 3
as received by NORAIS.
VII. SUMMARY
FFI operates two space-based AIS receivers. The NORAIS
receiver on the International Space Station started operations
1st June 2010. AISSat-1 was launched 12th July 2010. The data
received from these receivers in the first months of operations
show high numbers of ships outside the range of terrestrial AIS
networks can be tacked by space-based AIS.
From its near polar orbit AISSat-1 gives real-time
monitoring of the High North 15 times a day using the SvalSat
ground station. AIS data are already being delivered to the
Norwegian Coastal Administration, even though the satellite
has not finished commissioning yet.
The NORAIS receiver on ISS has received nearly 30
million AIS messages from more than 60 000 different
transmitters’ world wide.
The two receivers have different coverage areas and the
ship data base obtained has good global coverage that will be
used for more detailed analysis and predictions of detection
probability and quality of service.
REFERENCES
[1] T. Eriksen, G. Høye, B. Narheim, and B.J. Meland, ”Maritime traffic
monitoring using a space-based AIS receiver,” Acta Astronautica, vol.
58, issue 10, pp. 537-549, 2006.
[2] IMO, (1974/1980): “International convention for the Safety of Life at
Sea (SOLAS)”, Chapter V ”Safety of Navigation”, Regulation 19.
[3] ITU-R M.1371-4, (2010): “Technical Characteristics for a Universal
Shipborne Automatic Identification System using Time Division
Multiple Access in the VHF Maritime Mobile Bad”.
[4] Tonje N. Hannevik, Øystein Olsen, Andreas N. Skauen and Richard
Olsen, “Ship Detection using High Resolution Satellite Imagery and
Space-Based AIS”, WaterSide Security, Marina di Carrara, Italy, 3 - 5
November 2010.