Technology

exactEarth offers a comprehensive view of global maritime traffic unlike any other. Our advanced space-based AIS service, exactAIS®, is the outcome of years of investment and R&D activities.

The core of our advantage comes from our patent-pending technology that combines signal processing both on the satellite (to receive the very faint signals from hundreds of kilometres away) and on the ground, where we extract AIS message from the "collided" signals from thousands of ships.

exactEarth’s technology platform consists of a number of elements:

  • AIS Transponders. The source of data for our exactAIS® service is the AIS transponders that are already installed aboard 70,000 vessels worldwide. No changes to existing onboard equipment or procedures are required. In addition, new Search And Rescue Transponders are being equipped with AIS (SART-AIS. The exactEarth system can also detect these new lower power units.

  • Satellite Payloads. Receivers designed to receive maritime vessel AIS data from the exactVIEWTM space constellation are the result of several years of focused research and development, and have led to technology that is uniquely capable of “de-colliding” the signals received simultaneously from a large number of vessels, resulting in a high probability of detection.

  • Earth Stations. A ground station located at Svalbard, Norway near the North Pole, is in place to receive data from the satellites as they pass overhead on every orbit - about once every 100 minutes. The downlinked data is then sent, fully encrypted, to our Data Processing Centre. Additional ground stations are in use around the world and new dedicated stations are under development to increase the speed of data flow.

  • Mission Operations. Manages both the collection of the space-AIS data from the satellite network as well as the data set configuration and distribution as data feeds to the various customers around the world.

  • Data Processing Centre. A secure computer facility processes and stores the data received from the Ground Station. This facility is a top tier data center with extremely high reliability, including redundant power, cooling, fire suppression and physical security systems.

  • Operations Centre. The Operations Centre manages both the collection of the space-AIS data from the satellite network as well as the data set configuration and distribution as data feeds to the various customers around the world.

  • Customer Delivery. The data is delivered to competent maritime authorities over encrypted data links, in the standard NMEA or OTH-Gold data format. Customers can select either a data interface with their existing display system, a web-based display, or a comprehensive, turnkey solution.