Mapping Marine Traffic Density by Using AIS Data: An Application in the Northern Aegean Sea

Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is used for monitoring the movements of vessels live movements through instant transmission of vessel information while, at the same time, historical AIS data is used for marine traffic analysis by researchers. There are several methods and computer programs developed for the analysis of marine traffic by the use of AIS data. Combining the intersection algorithm proposed by Antonio (1992) and distance calculation method, this study develops a method to analyse vessel distribution on a selected cross sectional line (SCS) in the Northern Aegean Sea. As a complementary to the new methods proposed, a desktop application is developed in C# programming language to visualize the vessel distribution on the SCS line. SQL server is used for AIS data storage and analysis. The study is conducted over 7-day AIS data, specifically 2.382.469 rows and 42.884.442 data in total, belonging to the Northern Aegean Sea marine traffic. As a result, the mapping of the movements of different types of vessels in the Northern Aegean Sea is effectively performed and Frequency-Distance, Draught-Distance, SOG-Distance, SOG-COG distributions on the SCS line are successfully analysed by the new method introduced.