AIS Position Validation
Advanced RF signal-based vessel detection and tracking to validate vessels’ positions based on the unique real time coverage offered by the Spire constellation.

How does AIS position validation work?
AIS Position Validation independently calculates a vessel’s location at the time of the AIS transmission (even if AIS messages do not include valid GPS data).
This can be compared to the reported position contained within the AIS messages received from a vessel.
KPIs
- Continuous global coverage
- Calculated position and timestamp in any given 24 hour period since October 2022
- Distance between reported and calculated position
- Range of event types, each with timestamp
- Real time information (data takes 20 minutes to process)
Accuracy
- Approx. 80% validated calculated positions lie within ~40 nautical miles from their AIS reported positions
Monitoring
- All events: 650K+ daily events
- Valid events: +-99.5%
- Invalid events: +-0.5%
Additional Benefits
- 24/7 email and customer support
2 delivery methods
Summary view
Provides the latest vessel position, static and voyage information associated with given target (MMSI), and summary information, i.e., latest validated and positional anomaly events, and associated counts and timestamps.
Detailed view
Provides full information on detected events for target (MMSI), i.e., event type, associated reported and estimated positions, and relative distances in kilometers between estimated and reported positions.
To learn more about how to use our delivery methods, visit the AIS Position Validation documentation.
Use cases
Insurers
Provide data to support insurance claim procedures: Historical Data; Provision the assessment of insurance premiums for predictive insurance
Owners
Quickly identify good and bad actors and better inform the decision making process
Government
Provide geolocation information on possible maritime dark targets
Voyage regulatory & risk assessment
Manage regulatory & reputational risk by identifying ships & ship owners that are at risk of violating sanctions; Cargo owners vetting / assessing risk of vessels before fixing their cargo
Operators
Complete AIS feed, quickly identify good and bad actors, monitor technical issues, and better inform the decision making process
What makes AIS Position Validation different from other solutions?
- Complementary to other dark vessel detection methods
- Support AIS spoofing detection
- Access to real-time data (no need for human validation)
- Data lookback since October 2022
- Contributes to data integrity