How Networks Of Ocean Sensors Can Improve Marine Weather Predictability – CleanTechnica

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What difference would it make to be able to unlock ocean data at scale? How would deploying hundreds of marine sensing platforms improve marine weather predictability and accuracy?

A company named Sofar is answering some of those questions these days due to their capacity to use real-time data to improve marine weather forecast accuracy. Their team of ocean scientists builds innovative models to assimilate the observations made by the Spotter network into Sofar’s marine weather forecasts. These forecasts are up to 50% more accurate than traditional models, which can optimize voyages to help maritime shipping save fuel and emissions.

Importantly, to maximize impact, the company focuses on maritime shipping, which produces 3% of global emissions.

The Connection between Marine Weather Forecasting Accuracy and Big Data

Forecasting is the process of generating predictions based on historical and current data via trend analysis, and weather forecasting is a particularly important element of people’s busy daily lives today.

The National Weather Service out of NOAA explains that weather forecasts are made by collecting data about the current state of the atmosphere and using an understanding of atmospheric processes to predict how the atmosphere will evolve. The chaotic nature of the atmosphere — along with the incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes — makes forecasting difficult.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service complete a hand analysis of regional surfaces at least three times per day and an analysis of upper-air weather maps as needed — all of which is an attempt to get an idea of the state of the atmosphere. When the data review and analysis is completed over time, meteorologists are provided a means to track the evolution of fronts, jets, cyclones, and anticyclones and use this information for pattern recognition.

Rising global average temperatures are directly correlated with widespread changes in weather patterns. Higher temperatures will bring more extreme weather events. As more weather pattern data is gathered and analyzed, greater understanding of the climate crisis results, as does disaster preparedness planning. Climate science, a byproduct of the field of weather prediction, relies on advanced earth system models to target long-term trends of big data in weather patterns and, ultimately, predict, better understand, and develop responses to global warming and climate change scenarios.

The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet we know very little about it. Marine forecasts attempt to bring that gap as meteorologists and scientists analyze atmospheric and wave conditions at sea. Unlike onshore weather, marine weather isn’t limited to predicting if it will be rainy or sunny. A marine weather forecast predicts a few things:

Technology advancements have provided more ocean data and data dimensions than ever before. The development of machine learning has solved shortcomings in the use of traditional data analysis to analyze massive amounts of data. The use of machine learning technology to analyze and apply ocean data has important practical and long-term significance for protecting the ocean environment, predicting ocean elements, exploring the unknown, and responding to extreme weather.

Big data analytics is the process of analyzing big data to extract the concealed patterns and applicable information that can yield better results. It is a technique used for extracting information from large databases. Marine weather forecasts, layered with maritime data analytics, deliver new ways to optimize vessels, payloads, and emissions control.

The Partnership of Big Data and Marine Weather Forecasting Centers

San Francisco-based maritime technology company Sofar Ocean has announced a partnership with the US Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command’s (CNMOC) Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk (FWC-N) and San Diego (FWC-SD). Sofar equips science, industry, and government with their devices and data. FWC-N and FWC-SD, the Navy’s two primary weather forecasting centers, are piloting Sofar’s Wayfinder platform to support the routing of naval vessels at sea.

The Fleet Weather Centers provide US and coalition forces surface, submarine, aviation, and installation assets full-spectrum resource protection to include optimum track ship routing to surface and subsurface units, tropical forecasts, and ice forecasts. They deploy certified teams who apply meteorology and oceanography to facilitate maneuver and deliver warfighting advantage to surface strike, undersea, and amphibious forces.

As the number of naval vessels at sea, including experimental and autonomous ships, continues to increase, forecasters and routers will have less time to spend manually producing vessel-specific guidance. Wayfinder helps fill this operational gap, enabling FWC-N and FWC-SD to more efficiently support a large fleet in real time with automated forecast-on-route guidance. More efficient routing empowers FWC personnel to focus on challenging, mission-critical tasks that require their unique expertise.

The FWCs are utilizing Wayfinder to identify safe and efficient route options powered by real-time ocean weather data for Military Sealift Command (MSC) ships. The Wayfinder platform uses high-accuracy forecasts to optimize voyages and help fleets decarbonize. Wayfinder delivers daily voyage guidance that accounts for changes in weather, market, and vessel performance. The platform optimizes for each vessel’s business, safety, and decarbonization targets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing total voyage costs.

Because no organization can close the ocean data gap on its own, Sofar’s customers deploy Spotter platforms and access data from Sofar’s global sensor network to power marine research and solutions. Each day, this network makes more than 1.5 million real-time observations of waves and other ocean variables.

The Navy is evaluating Wayfinder under CNMOC and Sofar’s five-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) signed in July 2023. Wayfinder reduces manual tasks for forecasters and routers by automatically generating a forecast along a vessel’s route. The platform displays real-time observational data from Sofar’s global network of Spotter buoys to reduce weather uncertainty for route optimization, and predict unwanted vessel motions during a voyage. The availability of accurate real-time wave and weather observations helps Captains and shoreside personnel validate forecast models and examine multiple route options more efficiently, streamlining a historically complex and arduous process.

Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar, says,

“Wayfinder will empower the Navy to enhance situational awareness at sea and leverage data-driven optimization to continuously identify safe and efficient routing strategies. Powered by our real-time ocean weather sensor network, Wayfinder will help the Navy scale its routing operations to support a heterogeneous fleet operating in conditions made more extreme by the effects of climate change.”