ShipTracker

ShipTracker is a Python-based application for collecting, enriching, and visualizing real-time and historical ship positions and weather data. It uses AIS (Automatic Identification System) position reports, integrates weather information from Open-Meteo, and displays ship tracks and live status on an interactive Leaflet map.

See the DEMO LIVETRACKING

Features

• Collects AIS position reports for specified ships (MMSI filter)
• Enriches AIS data with current weather and marine conditions
• Stores data in CSV and JSON formats
• Generates GeoJSON tracks for map visualization
• Interactive web map (Leaflet) for viewing ship position, track, and weather
• Configurable monitoring duration and duplicate filtering

Project Structure

• ais_ship_tracker_weather.py — Main Python script for data collection and enrichment
• config.py — Configuration for ship MMSI, monitoring duration, and filtering
• ais_position_reports.csv — Collected AIS and weather data
• ship_tracks.geojson — Generated ship track data for map visualization
• position_report.json — Latest ship position and weather data
• index.html — Interactive map visualization (Leaflet)
• secrets/aisstream.json — Local secrets file for AIS API key (not tracked in git)
• .github/workflows/run_ais.yml — GitHub Actions workflow for automation

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set up AIS API key:

• Create a free account at AISstream
• Add your API key to secrets/aisstream.json (you can find it in your AISstream account):

  { "APIKey": "your_api_key_here" }

3. Configure ship(s) to monitor:

   • Edit config.py and set FILTERS_SHIP_MMSI to your target MMSI(s).

4. Run the tracker:

   python ais_ship_tracker_weather.py

5. View results:

   • Open index.html in your browser to view the map and ship data.

Data Files

• CSV: All collected AIS and weather data (ais_position_reports.csv)
• GeoJSON: Ship tracks for visualization (ship_tracks.geojson)
• JSON: Latest ship position and weather (position_report.json)

Configuration

See config.py for all available options:

• FILTERS_SHIP_MMSI: List of MMSI numbers to monitor
• MAX_DURATION_MINUTES: How long to monitor the AIS stream
• TIME_THRESHOLD_HOURS: Duplicate filtering threshold

Demo Website & Permalink Usage

You can view the ShipTracker demo at
https://davidoesch.github.io/shiptracker/index.html

The map supports permalinks via URL parameters:

• ?zoom=14
  Sets the initial zoom level of the map (default is 12).

• ?popupzoom=false
  Prevents the ship info popup from opening automatically when the page loads (default is true).

Examples:

• Show map with zoom 14
• Show map with zoom 14 and no popup
• Show map with no popup
• Show map in black and white

Just append the desired parameters to the URL to customize your view and share direct links to specific map states.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPL v3. See LICENSE for details.

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For technical details, see the Technical Description.