A I S

Automatic Identification System AIS for Ship is an electronic ship identification system for ship to ship collision avoidance, provides information and status of ships and their cargo onboard to other ships or shore parties and vessel traffic system in ports.

The AIS can be integrated to ship navigational equipment onboard, e.g. radar or electronic charts system to indicate the ships in vicinity.

The system also transmits information to the shore, a Ship to Shore information. This is extremely useful for Vessel Traffic Systems (VTS), guiding the ship in congested areas, but equally important for the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCC) in giving actual updated information on all ships participating in a rescue action. Compiled information from larger areas can give the authorities basic data for planning of fairways and routing systems.

The information provided by AIS consists of
the information sent between the ships and to and from the shore which comes in four categories:

1. Static information: ships standard details for identification purpose, e.g. the MMSI number, IMO number, call sign and name, length and beam, position for GNSS antenna, type of ship

2. Dynamic information: updated continuously at a rate varying from two seconds to three minutes depending upon traffic situation, e.g. position, time, speed, course over ground, heading, navigational status and rate of turn. The faster the ship runs, the more it has to update its position

3. Voyage related information: ships actual draft and cargo type e.g. dangerous cargo (DG), destination and estimated time of arrival (ETA)

4. Safety related information: short messages on weather conditions and navigational warnings transmitted from shore to ship
Click to save a copy of the term's definition to My Dictionary Click to receive a copy of the term's definition via e-mail
SART Search and Rescue radar Transponder, a safety equipment to give a clearer indication of the position of the vessel when activated by boosting the signal received by a searching radar; usually carried in pair for larger ships

radar stands for Radio Detection and Ranging; an electronic equipment that uses radio pulse to determine the bearing and distance to objects