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Back to SSG 22
Photo: Jörgen Språng
The evolution of weather routing
The weather has always been important and fascinated humanity. Especially in the Nordic countries, the weather is the ultimate topic when making small talk. The long tradition of observing and trying to predict the weather goes back over 250 years when the Stockholm observatory, as one of the oldest weather institutes in the world, started its data collection. The governmental agency known today as SMHI, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, was established as early as 1873.
The methods to predict weather has of course changed over the years. The improved accuracy on long term forecasts, together with the fact that communication between ship and shore has become faster and more affordable, has opened up for new possibilities when it comes to weather routing.
Weather routing as a concept is not new. Seafarers in all times have used their experience to interpret the signs of nature in order to avoid adverse weather, later with the help of sometimes blurry and interrupted facsimiles. Meteorological observations from ships have in return contributed to the modern science.
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In the picture, the software shows three alternative routes across the Atlantic, each with a given ETA and fuel consumption. |
No success at first
In the 1960’s, weather routing service was first offered to the shipping industry, especially by some American companies. SMHI also gave it a try but due to the low quality of the forecasts it was not very successful. Not until two decades later, when new technology enabled meteorologists to make more accurate analyses and longer forecasts did SMHI begin actively with the weather routing service as we know it today. With the help of advanced super computers and mathematical models, meteorologists can now manage millions of observations and compile a forecast that is good enough for a week or ten days.
Svante Andersson is a meteorologist and sales manager for SMHI Weather Routing:
“The breakthrough came with the ability to make global forecasts and not only for a limited area. The improved quality of the five to ten days forecast was the first important step. The second step was the improved communications that enabled the master to see what we are seeing.”
The communication facilities are continuing to improve and with broadband becoming an affordable reality on more and more ships the range of possibilities is expanding.
SMHI uses software that is developed together with a team of naval architects at Seaware AB. A research project merged the engineers’ ideas of an onboard system for sea keeping and ship dynamics with the knowledge of the marine meteorologists, resulting in an advanced system that can be installed in an ordinary PC onboard.
It is also possible to pre-configure the system with the ship’s specific particulars and connect it to a motion sensor and an anemometer. The system constantly evaluates the ship performance and wave induced effects, and issues a warning if preset limits are exceeded.
Traditionally, weather routing has been associated with finding the best route for a transoceanic passage or perhaps deciding on whether to take the Kiel Canal or go around the Skaw.
“Our onboard routing system and our marine meteorologists serve about 100–125 ships per day across the global oceans, plus about 50 ships in the European waters”, says Svante Andersson. “It can sometimes be stressful onboard with a demanding schedule and short turnaround times in port. If the master lacks the time to do an adequate route planning we can do the work and give route recommendations.“
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| Meteorologist Magnus Nilsson at work. Photo: Cecilia Österman |
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Increasing awareness
Increasing fuel prices and an equally increased awareness of the industry’s environmental impact have expanded the focus to encompass not only safety in terms of finding the best route to avoid bad weather and thus hazards for crew, vessel and cargo. It is just as much the possibility to find the right settings to minimise the fuel consumption and save on both money and environment. A majority of the customers so far have been car carriers, ro-ro vessels, reefers and container ships but lately also the bulk and tank segment has shown interest. According to Svante Andersson it is now less a question of if to have a weather routing system than of which system to use.
The user can search the system for the fastest or the cheapest route or a route that avoids a certain mean wave height. The ETA is calculated based on the intended route and predicted wind, wave, swell and sea current that is regularly updated via e-mail. It is also possible to go the other way around and give the system a fixed ETA. Different possible alternatives can then be evaluated and compared to get the optimal route and speed setting.
“On leaving say Singapore for Suez it might not be about which way to go. In this case it is more important to know about any weather resistance coming up in order to optimise the speed setting from the beginning and not waste fuel on sailing too fast and later compensate it by drifting.”
With the system comes the possibility to do a post voyage analysis and evaluate the ship’s performance during a voyage. With weather data for every sixth hour from a global database, the performance speed and fuel consumption for the whole voyage is calculated to detect potential under performance or excessive fuel consumption.
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Wind, waves and current affect the bunker consumption. The right speed setting from the beginning of a voyage saves fuel. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström |
So far, the service is mostly used by companies who operate vessels on time charter or operates a pool of vessels but it can also be used to settle a dispute if a ship does not meet the agreed requirements.
Important to all actors
The master will always make the final decision but weather routing is not longer solely the captains’ tool for finding the best way over the ocean. It has developed into a concept important to all actors in the trade and enables shipowners, operators, cargo owners and insurance companies to follow the progress of their interests around the globe and see that the cargo is safely delivered on time with a minimum of bunker consumption on each voyage.
//Cecilia Österman
Latest update 22-11-2007 11:31 |
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