Finders of marine vessels can now track their position on an interactive map in real time. You can find detailed information about each vessel's movements on the map below. online and even look at photographs of many of the ships shown on the map.
The map can be dragged with the mouse directly in the interactive window. Ships can be tracked worldwide. If you want to see more ships, drag the map with your mouse to another area. Ships can be sorted using the menu in the upper right corner of the map map options.
Use the slider on the left to zoom in and out on the map:
Search vessels in real time begins with the fact that you are asked to select a sector on the map, which indicates the number of ships currently located there.
We click the mouse, for example, on the region of Europe and get the above picture.
For example, this is what the coastline of Germany looks like:
If you hover your mouse over a boat, its name will appear. Also, the resource has another important vessel search function.
To search for the required ship, you need to enter its name (and localization, if known) into the search bar on the map and click search. Will be indicated real-time location and position of the vessel.
This map can also be very useful for those who are interested in international transport, as it allows you to track the movement of goods on sea vessels.
And functional automated project management systems in an enterprise will help make the business efficient and stable.
We present to you a unique map with which you can find the location of any ship in the world's oceans, as well as determine the direction of its movement.
The technology behind the card relies on a network of satellites capable of receiving encrypted Automatic Identification System, or AIS, signals. This system was developed specifically for civil navigation and is an encrypted signal transmitted by the ship into orbit. The signal contains basic information not only about the direction of movement of the vessel, but also key data about it - name, type, speed, cargo, destination port, etc. Information received by satellites is transmitted to the ground, where it is automatically processed.
The result of this processing was embodied in an interactive map of vessel movements, which can be seen below.
Interactive map of maritime traffic
Search for a ship by its name
A legend is attached to the map, thanks to which you can determine the type of ship being monitored. Similar data can be obtained by clicking on its icon on the map. You can monitor the movement of ships both in satellite mode and in the mode of overlaying a real image. In addition, if you know the name of the ship, you can find it on the map. To do this, you must enter the name in the appropriate field in English. If everything is done correctly, the map itself will be centered on the selected ship.
Video instructions for finding ships on the map
Map update
Almost all data shown on the map is updated in real time. It is worth remembering that the speed of movement of a ship on the open sea is relatively low, so if it seems that the ship is not moving, then perhaps you should just wait. However, this may not be the only reason for the ship’s “freezing” - the AIS satellite network still has “white spots” in the world’s oceans, into which ships periodically fall. In this case, you just need to wait until the ship can communicate with satellites again - its location will be updated.
Would you like to know where this or that sea vessel is currently located, which ships are located next to you, and which ones are moored in Buenos Aires, Sumatra or Singapore? The MarineTraffic.com network service gives you a unique opportunity to obtain a lot of useful information on the location and movement of the vessel you need on the map, its route, speed, cargo, weather in a given region, and so on. In this material I will talk about the real-time ship traffic map on the Marine Traffic website, and also explain in detail how to use the capabilities of this service.
AIS navigation
As you know, AIS (automated identification system) has been used in shipping since the early 90s, the main purpose of which is to improve the monitoring and safety of maritime transport. Its capabilities allow you to identify a ship, its course, dimensions and other parameters using VHF radio waves. The system covers an area of about 9 million square kilometers of coastal areas around the globe, including about 2,500 ports in areas of the highest maritime traffic.
In 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) required ships with a gross tonnage of more than 300 tons to install a special AIS transmitter on board the ship. The latter’s responsibilities include transmitting in real time to a special receiving station all necessary information about the vessel, including its speed, course, location, name, dimensions, and other relevant data.
The site I'm reviewing, MarineTraffic.com, receives data from more than 1,200 AIS receiving stations around the world. After collecting data, they are transferred to a processing center, where they are processed and plotted on a map posted on the service. At the same time, the indicated map of ship movement online is available both through a browser on a desktop PC and through the corresponding application for mobile devices.
So what is Marine Traffic?
MarineTraffic is a popular network service in the world for tracking the location of marine vessels. The resource collects real-time data about the location of the vessel (as well as information about its course, speed, tonnage, and so on). And displays it on the corresponding map, thereby greatly facilitating the work of people directly connected with the sea.
The purpose of the vessel traffic map service is to increase the transparency and efficiency of maritime transport. The site allows you to track the location of many vessels, making data on them available to ordinary users. At the same time, the resource is actively developing, inviting interested parties to take direct part in its formation and further progress.
If you want to take a look, you need to check out my selection of the best services here.
How to use the Marine Traffic real-time ship traffic map
After going to the website marinetraffic.com, you will immediately be taken to the service’s working map.
I recommend scrolling down the work screen and using the Russian interface instead of the default English one. At the same time, I will warn the reader that most of the interface will remain in English one way or another.
You will then need to go through the registration process (after which you will have access to a number of special options at the “My Fleets” level, allowing you to track the vessels of your choice). To do this, click on “Login” at the top, then on “Register”, and go through the registration procedure via email.
The map schematically shows different types of vessels in different colors (transport, tankers, passenger, high-speed, special, fishing, etc.)
By hovering the cursor over the vessel you need, you can get information about its name and final destination. More detailed information is available only after paying the appropriate fee for using the site (an annual subscription, a subscription depending on the number of ships you have chosen, and so on).
Service control panel in Russian
The Marine Traffic service control panel is divided into two main parts - the left panel and the top panel.
The left panel contains the following options:
The top panel has the following options:
Conclusion
Despite all the richness of the Marine Traffic website’s capabilities, its free functionality is quite limited, being of interest only in terms of familiarization with the capabilities of the service. All the completeness of the information on the vessel traffic maps that the user needs can only be obtained by paying for the paid functionality of the site, which is really quite impressive and will be fully useful to people associated with the sea and maritime transportation.
Marine site Russia no October 15, 2016 Created: October 15, 2016 Updated: July 25, 2017 Views: 77110Based on data from AIS. All vessel positions, departure from the port and arrival at the destination port in real time. Attention! The positions of the vessels may sometimes not correspond to the real ones and may lag behind by an hour or more. All coordinates of vessel positions are presented for informational purposes only.
Search data from AIS cannot be used for routing. When searching, you will find accurate information about the movements of ships on the map using AIS data and can view their photographs. In order to find a ship, select a sector on the map where the number of ships currently located there is indicated.
We click with the mouse, for example, on the region of Europe and get the picture that you see below. If you zoom in on the area, you will see specific vessels. The map receives updates every few seconds.
When you hover your cursor over a ship, you can see its name; on the site you can get other information you are interested in for searching. To find the ship you are interested in, enter the name of the ship and, if possible, its location in the search bar and press the search key. The AIS map will show the vessel's position in real time.
What is AIS?
To reduce the risk of ship collisions, AIS - Automatic Identification System was developed in 2000. Its functionality turned out to be so successful that just two years later the International Maritime Organization demanded the mandatory installation of AIS terminals on all cargo ships with a displacement of more than 500 registered tons, on “trucks” over 300 tons on international voyages, and on all ships for passenger transport, regardless of tonnage
Unlike radars, which can detect the appearance of large floating objects near the ship and approximately estimate their current direction and speed of movement, AIS allows you to obtain much more detailed and accurate information about the navigation situation.
To better understand the capabilities of the new system, let’s first understand how it works.
The ship's AIS module is a digital VHF transceiver interfaced with ships' navigation systems. Depending on the speed of the vessel, every 2–10 seconds (every 3 minutes when stationary), it automatically transmits the following operational information: MMSI identification number, navigation status (“at anchor”, “underway”, etc.). ), current coordinates, true course and speed, angular rate of turn and exact time stamp.
In addition to dynamic data, static data is transmitted every 6 minutes: the IMO vessel identification number, its type, name, radio call sign, dimensions, type of positioning system (GPS, GLONASS, LORAN) and even the position of its antenna relative to the bow of the vessel. Route information is transmitted at the same frequency: destination with estimated time of arrival, draft, cargo category and number of people on board. In addition, in the event of a threat to the safety of the vessel, it is allowed to send text messages entered manually from it.
The received information can be displayed on the terminal in the form of a table with information about nearby vessels, as well as in the form of their symbols superimposed on navigation maps (for example, in a chartplotter) - of course, in this case it is much easier to assess the relative position and dynamics of movement.
In short, according to AIS messages, the captain can absolutely accurately assess the current navigation situation. By the way, radio traffic in the system is carried out in the range of 162 MHz, that is, at a much lower frequency compared to radar radiation. Longer radio waves are able to avoid obstacles such as large ships and low islands, and therefore the range of AIS is pleasantly impressive. Under favorable conditions, it can exceed 40 miles, but keep in mind that the height of the antenna here, as with other airborne transmitters, plays a decisive role.
For yachtsmen, at least those whose vessels do not appear in the Forbes magazine charts, the subtlety of using the system lies in the fact that only simplified version terminals, designated “Class B”, are allowed to be installed on ships with a displacement of less than 300 tons.
They feature a noticeably reduced transmitter power (2 W versus 12.5 W), which limits their transmission range to approximately five miles. Another nuisance is a simplified data transmission algorithm that allows you to send information only if there is free space on the air during the radio exchange of older brothers equipped with class A terminals. The trick here is that at any given time on any of the two AIS channels It is possible to transmit one single block of digital data, and class A devices are able to agree with each other in advance about the order in which they are issued.
However, you must agree: despite such discrimination, being in a rough sea at night, it is very pleasant to know that on a supertanker passing nearby, the watchman probably knows about the presence of your 45-foot yacht at his side.
There is another way to use AIS, and it involves installing a receiver that does not allow sending any data at all, but is capable of tracking the movements of all ships equipped with full-fledged terminals. By and large, you don't even need a separate device for this, since manufacturers like Icom and Standard Horizon have begun to equip high-end models of mounted VHF radios with this function.
Convenient, compact, not expensive, but there is one big “but” - it’s problematic to place even a text table on a small low-resolution screen, let alone build even the most primitive semblance of a map...
That is why AIS receivers were developed that do not display graphic information at all, but are able to convert data into packets of the standard NMEA protocol, which is understood by the vast majority of chartplotters. Plus, some of them can connect to computers via USB, or even transfer data via Wi-Fi to mobile gadgets running Android or iOS. Similar devices are produced, for example, by Weather Dock.
By the way, when installing AIS equipment, even an additional antenna is not absolutely necessary due to operation in the same frequency range with the on-board radio. However, keep in mind that splitters used to connect two different devices to an antenna tend to reduce the signal level slightly, and if there is a problem with a single antenna, you will lose two security systems at once.
It would be naive to believe that such an advanced information exchange system was created solely to assist helmsmen in operational maneuvering. AIS also includes global monitoring of vessel movements for the benefit of a variety of shipping companies, traffic control centers, and government agencies that may require information about the location of certain vessels or cargo. For this reason, AIS equipment can be based not only on ships, but also on coastal stations, many of which are connected to a global network.
Well, in order to more effectively use the system to search and rescue sailors in emergency situations, emergency buoys are being produced that are capable of transmitting AIS information with high priority. There are also so-called virtual buoys - this is the only type of device in the system, whose real location may not coincide with the coordinates in their messages. As a rule, these are transmitters installed on the shore, warning passing ships of dangers such as poorly visible rocks or capes devoid of lighthouses jutting far out to sea.
It must be said that AIS receivers are even located on satellites. It is only on the surface of the Earth that the radius of propagation of its signal is limited by visibility to the horizon, but in space it can be received from hundreds of kilometers without any problems. Today, more than a dozen spacecraft are orbiting the planet, monitoring maritime traffic.
It’s especially nice that you can get to data on the global movement of ships without being the owner of a shipping company or a secret service agent. Information is available on a paid basis (for example, in the full version of Google Earth), but in a somewhat truncated form it can also be seen for free, for example, on the resource www.marinetraffic.com, whose interactive maps and user-friendly interface are replicated on many other nautical websites.
The real-time map of sea and river vessels is based on AIS (AIS Automatic Identification System) technology. This is an Automatic Identification System that allows you to find a vessel by number or name based on geographic coordinates and time calculation.
The data is obtained from the global GPS satellite system, taking into account the readings of identification devices on board ships. Information from them is transmitted on VHF frequencies.
The system transmits data on all merchant ships on international lines with a capacity of more than 300, and all ships on domestic lines with a capacity of over 500. It also includes all passenger ships without exception. The data includes the port of destination, type of vessel, its speed, name, route, name of the cargo, etc.
Real-time marine vessel map: features
You can find a vessel in real time by name or number by selecting the button with a magnifying glass at the top right. In the window that drops down to the side, you need to start entering the vessel data, after which the system itself will offer options - that is, you do not always need to add the entire name or number.
You can also find out information about ships by clicking on a ship in a particular region of interest to you. More information about searching is in the video at the end of the article. To return the map to its original position, click on the ship in the upper left corner. The map is clickable.
It should be noted that not all areas of the planet are yet within reach of AIS devices. If a vessel is in such a zone, its name or number will be grayed out. If it is in the coverage area, the name will turn black.
If the ship is outside the coverage area, you just need to wait a while until it enters it. It should also be noted that, unlike, the online map of sea vessels shows traffic less intensively due to the lower speed of the vessels themselves. Therefore, online maritime transport moves on the map more slowly.
Unfortunately, the map is currently only available in English, but it still provides the necessary information, and if desired, anyone can use Google transliteration for translation.
How to use the marine chart
Unfortunately, the author of the video calls sea vessels “ships,” but we know that “ship” is a word applicable to the navy.
How to find a ship in real time
