BarentsWatch AIS API

Use in your agent

Load BarentsWatch live AIS positions into pandas and Parquet. Checked against the provider's documentation on Nov 5, 2026.

Access

• Register a free client at developer.barentswatch.no to get a client id/secret, then complete the OpenID Connect flow to get a bearer access token.
• The snippet reads BARENTSWATCH_ACCESS_TOKEN from the environment; it does not perform the OpenID Connect handshake itself.

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $BARENTSWATCH_ACCESS_TOKEN" 'https://live.ais.barentswatch.no/v1/combined'

Format

JSON AIS position records (mmsi, latitude, longitude, speedOverGround, msgtime and similar fields) as documented on the live AIS OpenAPI host; exact schema is on live.ais.barentswatch.no.

Load into pandas and Parquet

Needs Python 3 with requests, pandas and pyarrow.

"""BarentsWatch live AIS sample -> pandas -> Parquet. Needs a registered client and an OpenID Connect token.

Reads the access token from BARENTSWATCH_ACCESS_TOKEN; register a free client and complete
the OpenID Connect flow to obtain one before running this.
"""
import os
import requests
import pandas as pd

TOKEN = os.environ["BARENTSWATCH_ACCESS_TOKEN"]
URL = "https://live.ais.barentswatch.no/v1/combined"
r = requests.get(URL, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}"}, timeout=60)
r.raise_for_status()
payload = r.json()
df = pd.json_normalize(payload if isinstance(payload, list) else payload.get("data", []))
df.to_parquet("barentswatch_ais_sample.parquet", index=False)
print(len(df), "AIS position rows")

Run by us on 2026-11-05 (python 3.13 | not executed — credentials required). Result: Not executed without credentials (requires free BarentsWatch client registration and OpenID access token in BARENTSWATCH_ACCESS_TOKEN).

Limits

• Rate/performance limits: Not stated beyond describing the AIS host as a live service.
• Authentication is mandatory; there is no keyless or anonymous access tier.

Quirks

• The live AIS host (live.ais.barentswatch.no) is documented separately from the main developer.barentswatch.no API catalogue.
• Do not add a separate Kystverket entry for this feed; Kystverket corroborates the same underlying Norwegian Coastal Administration AIS data.

Terms and attribution

• BarentsWatch publishes API data under NLOD unless a specific dataset says otherwise, and commercial use is allowed if you follow its guidelines and credit "Data delivered by BarentsWatch" (or the Norwegian form).

Sources

• https://www.barentswatch.no/en/articles/api-terms-and-conditions/: “Information from BarentsWatch APIs are made available by the Norwegian Licence for Open Government Data (NLOD)”
• https://www.barentswatch.no/en/articles/api-terms-and-conditions/: “You may use data from BarentsWatch commercially as long as you follow the guidelines”