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Data coverage

What NTHMAP ingests, how fresh it is, and the known limitations of each dataset.

NTHMAP aggregates data from public, licensed, and proprietary sources. This page is the source of truth for what's covered, how fresh it is, and what you should NOT expect.

Vessels (AIS)

Source

AIS broadcasts received via AISstream.io (Phase 2) and supplemented with registry data from Clarksons and Equasis.

Coverage

Vessel type	Coverage
Tankers (crude, product, chemical, LPG, LNG)	~99% of vessels over 50k DWT
Bulk carriers	~97% over 30k DWT
Container ships	~99% over 5k TEU
Fishing vessels	Excluded by default (filterable)
Military / law enforcement	Not included

Freshness

Live positions refresh every 5 minutes on average. Vessels in port or anchored may broadcast less frequently; vessels deliberately disabling AIS ("going dark") will have stale positions until they re-broadcast.

Known limitations

"Dark fleet" vessels — ships that disable AIS (sanctioned crude, illegal fishing, smuggling) are not visible until they reappear. NTHMAP does not currently do SAR-based dark vessel detection.
Destination & ETA are captain-entered and often incomplete or stale. The destination field is a port code (e.g. NLRTM for Rotterdam) but sometimes free-text like "FOR ORDERS" or the last port. Treat with skepticism.
Cargo is estimated, never declared. NTHMAP infers cargo from current_draught ÷ max_draught × DWT. This is a reliable aggregate proxy (±10% on fleet-level estimates) but can be off for individual vessels, especially those carrying heavy/dense cargo where draught changes disproportionately.

Infrastructure

Source

Primary sources:

Global Energy Monitor (GEM) for oil/gas refineries, LNG terminals, pipelines, coal mines
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for North American refineries and strategic petroleum reserves
World Port Index (WPI) for ports
Clarksons Register for offshore oil/gas fields
NTHMAP proprietary for chokepoints

Coverage

Asset type	Count	Geographic coverage
LNG terminals	220+	Global
Oil refineries	500+ (≥50 kbd)	Global
Crude + gas pipelines	120+ major	Global
Ports	3,500+	Global WPI
Coal mines	450+	Top producers
Strategic reserves	30+	G20 + China
Offshore oil/gas fields	200+	Primary producers

Freshness

Infrastructure is largely static — refineries and pipelines don't move. Metadata (operator, status, capacity) is refreshed quarterly from source datasets. Construction or closure events trigger an out-of-band update.

Known limitations

Secondary & downstream infrastructure (petchem plants, NGL processing, smaller regional ports) is incomplete outside North America and Europe.
Pipeline routes are simplified to a small number of polyline vertices for rendering performance. Real pipelines have many more subtle bends.
Capacity figures are nameplate, not realized throughput. Ask the sales team for enterprise-tier throughput data.

World events

Source

Event type	Source	Format
Hurricanes, tropical storms, marine warnings	NOAA NWS API	ATOM/GeoJSON
Earthquakes (M2.5+)	USGS	GeoJSON feed
Wildfires (active hotspots)	NASA FIRMS	MODIS + VIIRS
Conflict events	GDELT 2.0	BigQuery
Port closures, strikes	GDELT + NTHMAP editorial	Mixed
Sanctions zones	NTHMAP editorial	Manual

Freshness

NOAA alerts: every 15 minutes
USGS earthquakes: every 15 minutes
NASA FIRMS: every 3 hours (satellite pass cadence)
GDELT: every 15 minutes
NTHMAP editorial (sanctions, strategic zones): daily review

Known limitations

Geocoding accuracy — GDELT events are geocoded from news text and can be off by 50+ km for non-coastal events. Coastal conflict and port-closure events are cross-checked against WPI.
False positives on wildfires — NASA FIRMS reports heat anomalies which can include gas flares, power plants, and industrial heat. NTHMAP filters the most obvious false positives but does not do full disambiguation.
Editorial lag on sanctions — we track official OFAC/EU designations but custom intel sources may be faster. Enterprise customers can feed their own intel sources.

Commodity prices

Source

FinancialModelingPrep.com — WTI, Brent, NG, HO, RB, gold, copper, aluminum
Baltic Exchange — BDI, BDC (indices only, not fixtures)
JKM — Platts S&P via reseller (Pro tier)
Futures curve — coming soon (enterprise)

Freshness

All prices refresh every 15 minutes during market hours. Outside market hours you see the last print.

Known limitations

Not real-time tick data. If you need sub-minute prints, subscribe directly to your venue feed; NTHMAP is not a replacement for Reuters or Bloomberg.
Spot prices only for most commodities. The futures curve and forward rates are enterprise-only.
No physical cargo prices (e.g. Platts daily assessments for crude grades). We're working on a Platts integration for enterprise tiers.

Chokepoints

The 8 NTHMAP-curated chokepoints are proprietary — we compute their status hourly from vessel-in-bbox aggregates + event overlay. The list is intentionally short; we focus on the chokepoints that matter for global commodity flows.

Coverage gaps we're working on

Top of the Phase 3 roadmap:

Dark fleet detection via SAR satellite + AIS gap analysis
Port call history — full in/out records per vessel per port
Futures curve data — forward rates + term structure
Platts crude grade assessments — physical cargo pricing
Weather forecasts (not just events) — storm paths + ETA impact
Dry bulk cargo ton-miles — rolling index for iron ore, coal, grain

Want to be a design partner for any of these? Email data@nthmap.com.

Licensing & redistribution

Raw NTHMAP data is licensed per your plan tier:

Free: personal use only, no redistribution
Pro: internal business use, team of up to 10, no redistribution
Enterprise: negotiated — bulk export, redistribution, and white-label options available

If in doubt, check your plan terms or email legal@nthmap.com.

Attribution

NTHMAP data includes:

NOAA, USGS, NASA FIRMS (events)
AIS broadcasts via AISstream.io (vessels)
Global Energy Monitor (infrastructure)
World Port Index (ports)
GDELT Project (geopolitical events)

All attribution is preserved in raw API responses where the source requires it.