Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) are a navigation safety device that transmits and monitors the location and characteristics of many vessels in U.S. and international waters in real-time. This dataset represents the density of vessel traffic in 2011 for the contiguous United States offshore waters from vessels with AIS transponders in 100 meter grid cells. The dataset is best interpreted using a high to low density scale and does not represent actual vessel counts.

These data were generated to provide insight into marine traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States, this data set is for the UTM Zone 11N. For this dataset a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. Some grid cells were unable to be processed, but this does not interfere with the integrity of this dataset. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases data gaps were filled by making subsequent request to the coastguard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal on the order less than a day per month and because random and affect all areas uniformly do not has a significant effect on the integrity of the data. Also as stated on the USCG NAIS website AIS data is not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

These data were generated to provide insight into traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States. For this dataset, a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. There were some grid cells which were unable to be processed, but it is not perceived that this interferes with the integrity of these data. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases, data gaps were filled by making subsequent requests to the Coast Guard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints, uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal, on the order of less than a day per month. Because outages were random and affect all areas uniformly, they do not have a significant effect on the integrity of the data. As stated on the USCG NAIS website, AIS data are not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

These data were generated to provide insight into marine traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States, this data set is for the UTM Zone 10N. For this dataset a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. Some grid cells were unable to be processed, but this does not interfere with the integrity of this dataset. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases data gaps were filled by making subsequent request to the coastguard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal on the order less than a day per month and because random and affect all areas uniformly do not has a significant effect on the integrity of the data. Also as stated on the USCG NAIS website AIS data is not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

These data were generated to provide insight into marine traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States, this data set is for the UTM Zone 15N. For this dataset a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. Some grid cells were unable to be processed, but this does not interfere with the integrity of this dataset. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases data gaps were filled by making subsequent request to the coastguard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal on the order less than a day per month and because random and affect all areas uniformly do not has a significant effect on the integrity of the data. Also as stated on the USCG NAIS website AIS data is not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

These data were generated to provide insight into marine traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States, this data set is for the UTM Zone 17N. For this dataset a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. Some grid cells were unable to be processed, but this does not interfere with the integrity of this dataset. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases data gaps were filled by making subsequent request to the coastguard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal on the order less than a day per month and because random and affect all areas uniformly do not has a significant effect on the integrity of the data. Also as stated on the USCG NAIS website AIS data is not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

These data were generated to provide insight into marine traffic patterns on a macro scale so they could be analyzed across the coastal waters of the Continental United States, this data set is for the UTM Zone 14N. For this dataset a transit is counted for every unique vessel intersecting a 1 kilometer square grid cell each day. This data represents the total number of vessel transits from October 2009 - October 2010. Some grid cells were unable to be processed, but this does not interfere with the integrity of this dataset. Please note multiple connection errors occurred during the time frame of this study. In most cases data gaps were filled by making subsequent request to the coastguard or other groups receiving the same data feed. However, due to resource constraints uninterrupted coverage was not obtained. Overall data outages were minimal on the order less than a day per month and because random and affect all areas uniformly do not has a significant effect on the integrity of the data. Also as stated on the USCG NAIS website AIS data is not representative of all vessel traffic and USCG NAIS receivers do not fully cover the entire extent of this study area. Please take time to understand both of these limitations.

Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) are a navigation safety device that transmits and monitors the location and characteristics of many vessels in U.S. and international waters in real-time. In the U.S. the Coast Guard and industry collect AIS data, which can also be used for a variety of coastal planning purposes. NOAA and BOEM have worked jointly to re-task and make available some of the most important records from the U.S. Coast Guard's national network of AIS receivers. Information such as location, time, ship type, length, width, and draft have been extracted from the raw data and prepared as track lines for analyses in desktop GIS software.

These data were collected as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric’s (NOAA) DWH Lessons Learned Studies: Detection of Oil Thickness and Emulsion Mixtures using Remote Sensing Platforms study on methods to estimate oil slick coverage and thickness. The Team developed methods for synoptic collection of satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, oil and water chemistry, and subsurface oil slick data at both the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (Ohmsett) and the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20), which has experienced an ongoing chronic oil discharge since 2004. Data shown here in NOAA’s Environmental Response Management Applications (ERMA) are part of the MC20 field research undertaken in 2016, 2017, and 2018. This research was primarily funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and the Oil Spill Preparedness Division through Interagency Agreement E16PG00023 with the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA.

These data were collected as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric’s (NOAA) DWH Lessons Learned Studies: Detection of Oil Thickness and Emulsion Mixtures using Remote Sensing Platforms study on methods to estimate oil slick coverage and thickness. The Team developed methods for synoptic collection of satellite imagery, airborne imagery, surface oil characterization, oil and water chemistry, and subsurface oil slick data at both the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (Ohmsett) and the Mississippi Canyon lease block #20 (MC20), which has experienced an ongoing chronic oil discharge since 2004. Data shown here in NOAA’s Environmental Response Management Applications (ERMA) are part of the MC20 field research undertaken in 2016, 2017, and 2018. This research was primarily funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and the Oil Spill Preparedness Division through Interagency Agreement E16PG00023 with the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA.