Tracking sea faring ships with AIS data and Grafana

QuestDB is highlighted as an open-source time-series database ideal for managing demanding workloads, such as those on trading floors or in mission control, due to its low latency, high ingestion throughput, and multi-tier storage engine. The text explores the use of QuestDB to analyze historical location data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), primarily used for tracking nautical vessel movements to prevent collisions and support maritime authorities. The analysis involves processing AIS data to create visualizations, such as heatmaps and ship type routes, using Grafana to illustrate maritime traffic patterns in regions like the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. The text details the challenges of working with AIS timestamps and the method used to parse them, as well as examining specific ship movements using unique identifiers like the MMSI number. The integration of QuestDB and Grafana showcases the potential for deep, multidimensional maritime data analysis, emphasizing the database's capability to handle large datasets effectively.