MONITORING OF NORTH KOREAN SHIPS USING SATELLITE AND TERRESTRIAL AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (AIS) DATA

Abstract

Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a shipboard broadcast system which transmits ship’s various information in between ships and land-based on shore AIS receiving station in real time through the use of Very High Frequency (VHF) radio wave. The low earth orbit satellites equipped with AIS receiver were recently launched to receive the AIS message in a wide range to overcome the limitation of terrestrial AIS. The greatest advantage of the wide range of vessel monitoringby satellite AIS is that information on a ship engaged in international navigation can be explored easily. While terrestrial AIS have a relatively small coverage, it is useful to understand the trajectories of vessels with an advantage of continuous data acquisition in real-time. Using both advantages of satellite and terrestrial AIS, the present study is aimed to investigate the ships in a remote area which is difficult or not allowed to access physically and their characteristic of movements in Yellow Sea. In particular, the present study is designed to understand shipping and tracks of those vessels which entered North Korea though the Taedong River and visited one or more ports on its track from 1st January to 31st December 2014. wave. The low earth orbit satellites equipped with AIS receiver were recently launched to receive the AIS message in a wide range to overcome the limitation of terrestrial AIS. The greatest advantage of the wide range of vessel monitoringby satellite AIS is that information on a ship engaged in international navigation can be explored easily. While terrestrial AIS have a relatively small coverage, it is useful to understand the trajectories of vessels with an advantage of continuous data acquisition in real-time. Using both advantages of satellite and terrestrial AIS, the present study is aimed to investigate the ships in a remote area which is difficult or not allowed to access physically and their characteristic of movements in Yellow Sea. In particular, the present study is designed to understand shipping and tracks of those vessels which entered North Korea though the Taedong River and visited one or more ports on its track from 1st January to 31st December 2014.