Utilizing the US Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Affiliation’s Marine Cadastre software, you’ll be able to obtain 16 years of detailed day by day ship actions, in addition to “transit rely” maps generated from a yr’s value of information exhibiting every ship’s gathered paths. The information is collected solely from ground-based stations alongside the US coasts.
I downloaded all of 2023’s transit rely maps and loaded them up in geographic data system software program known as QGIS to visualise this yr of marine site visitors.
The maps are summary and electrical. With landmasses eliminated, the ship traces resemble long-exposure pictures of sparklers, high-energy particle collisions, or strands of fiber-optic wire.
DATA: NOAA; MAP: JON KEEGAN / BEAUTIFUL PUBLIC DATA
DATA: NOAA; MAP: JON KEEGAN / BEAUTIFUL PUBLIC DATA
DATA: NOAA; MAP: JON KEEGAN / BEAUTIFUL PUBLIC DATA
DATA: NOAA; MAP: JON KEEGAN / BEAUTIFUL PUBLIC DATA
Zooming in on these maps, you would possibly see unusual geometric patterns of good circles, or strains in a grid. A few of these are fishing grounds, others are scientific surveys mapping the seafloor, and others signify boats going to and from offshore oil rigs, particularly off Louisiana’s gulf coast.
Hiding in plain sight
Having a world, near-real-time system for monitoring the exact actions of all ships at sea seems like a terrific innovation—except you’re attempting to maintain your ships’ actions and cargoes secret.
