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  • SwellMap surfing into MetService.com
    14 Oct 2011

    SwellMap has partnered with the Meteorological Service of New Zealand (MetService) to provide specialised wind and wave forecast information into their new surf, beach and boating section, now live on metservice.com

    As the country's sixth most visited website and number one national weather website,
    metservice.com reaches over 300,000 unique visitors a week and attracts a broad
    segment of users.

    SwellMap.com has been providing marine weather to boating and marine enthusiasts
    for the last seven years, since 2005. The team at MetOcean Solutions is delighted to be
    recognised by MetService and collaborate to present quality forecast to an even larger
    segment of the New Zealand population.

    MetService s aim is to give New Zealanders the best quality weather information they
    need, every day of the year, with a one-stop-shop approach. Getting information from
    SwellMap and feeding into MetService weather site will offer user that full range of
    weather information.


    "Partnering with MetService to deliver up-to-date SwellMap information to the public is
    an exciting opportunity. With a fantastic reach and growing community of users, we are
    delighted to provide the public with high-quality data for planning their marine
    activities."     Peter McComb, Managing Director of MetOcean Solutions commented.

    Just in time for summer, MetService.com new Marine & Surf section combines the latest
    surf and beach cams from around New Zealand with comprehensive swell forecasts
    from specialist provider MetOcean Solutions.

    Once summer kicks off, so will MetService's beach and surf weekend video forecasts;
    they'll be hosted by forecasters who are not only experts in the field - they're regular
    surfers themselves.


    "We never stop thinking about how we can add to or improve on the website. It's all
    about quality information that's easy and fun to use."     said MetService interactive
    manager Craig Delany.

    SwellMap presents weather data our own proprietary wave model that uses state-of-
    the-art atmospheric and oceanographic models. Observational data along with numeric
    (computer) models are used generate high-resolution and quality forecasts. The site is
    updated 4 times a day providing 7 days of weather data at 6 hourly intervals.
    With user-friendly formats; including charts/maps, graphs and tables, SwellMap
    presents an excellent and simplified way to interpret the week s weather patterns at a
    glance.

    For more information contact:
    Rosalina Pang
    Marketing Coordinator
    MetOcean Solutions Ltd
    Ph: +64 6 758 5035
    rosalina@metocean.co.nz

  • Simulating oil spill of stranded cargo ship Rena
    11 Oct 2011

    MetOcean Solutions Ltd has been supplying regular spill trajectory forecasts for the Rena incident.

    Rena, a Liberia-flagged 235m vessel ran aground at Astrolabe Reef, off the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand shoreline at approximately 2.20 am on the 5th of October, 2011. Heavy fuel oil was seen to be leaking from the vessel on Wednesday morning. Following the initial release of oil it was observed that ongoing releases occurred on each low tide.

    Maritime New Zealand maintains and operates an oil spill trajectory model. To complement those predictions, the MetOcean Solutions trajectory system has been used as an independent source of information, based on the use of MetOcean’s local-scale high-resolution wind, wave and current forecast data.

    MetOcean run operational forecasts with a New Zealand scale atmospheric model (WRF) plus a regional current (POM) and wave (SWAN) model. Forecast cycles are run every 6 hours with predictions for up to 7-days in advance. Data include the tidal and residual currents all around NZ.

    The forecast system updates automatically every 6 hours, and these high-resolution data are being used in the General NOAA Operational Modelling Environment (GNOME), which predicts the fate of the spilled oil.

    To account for the variability of time release of the spill, GNOME has been setup to release oil 2-hours either side on low tide only. In the attached simulation, the black particles represent the expected plume while the red particles represent a “minimum regret” or worst case spreading of the plume.

    The first oil arrived on Mt Maunganui Beach in the morning of 10th October, and by midday there were long lines of stranded oil. Later that evening there were reports of oil reaching as far south as Papamoa.

    Initial feedback from onsite responders suggest that the predicted timing and location for the beaching of the plume was accurate.

    For more information on MSL emergency response interface (ERI), contact us at +64 6 758 5035 or email: enquiries@metocean.co.nz.

  • MSL expands atmospheric capability
    28 Apr 2011

    We are very please to announce the addition of Greg Pearson and Frank Sonntag to our team of scientists. Greg has come from his previous role as head of Research and Development at New Zealand Metservice to head up a new atmospheric group within MSL. Greg has extensive experience with the configuration and implementation of state of the art numerical weather prediction models. His skills will be fully utilised to continue to provide the best possible marine forecasts and hindcasts, and also to develop new land based meteorological services. Frank is an atmospheric scientist with outstanding skills in the design and development of operational forecast and hindcasting systems.

    The new group's first job has been an upgrade of the core operational model used to generate forecasts for WeatherMap. Other ongoing development projects are investigating optimal NWP configurations for our marine forecast services and the development of new forecast and hindcasting tools to service the wind energy sector.

  • New web services for displaying forecasts
    27 Apr 2011

    We have recently developed new web based services for delivering weather forecast data in an easy and intuitive way. These services are designed to seamlessly integrate into existing web pages and GIS applications.

    WXTiles

    A free service called WXTiles offers forecast overlays for existing GoogleMaps or OpenLayers web pages. Anyone can sign-up and add weather forecasts to their own websites. The WXTiles service gives access to pre-rendered overlay tiles that sit on top of a web page map. A Javascript API means that anyone can easily add weather forecasts to their web site with just a few lines of Javascript. The forecast overlays can also be added to Google Earth through a KML link.

    Check out WXTiles at www.wxtiles.com

    Web services for GIS

    In collaboration with Explorer Graphics Limited, we are developing ways to integrate weather data into existing GIS applications. As well as providing key baseline information relevant to many operations, weather data is also integrated into management decision tools through GIS based queries.

  • SwellMap updated and international
    27 Apr 2011

    SwellMap has recently been re-released providing recreational marine forecasts for New Zealand and areas all over the world.

    SwellMap has been generating accurate marine forecasts for hundreds of spots all over New Zealand for 6 years now, helping marine enthusiasts such as surfers and fishermen to know when the conditions are good.

    Recently, MetOcean Solutions Ltd decided to develop SwellMap further due to the success of this service, by improving the look of the website and increasing the forecast coverage. Currently, locations such as Indonesia, Persian Gulf, and the UK have been added to SwellMap, with the continual addition of thousands of global spots relevant to activities like surfing, fishing, boating, kite-surfing.

    Check out www.SwellMap.com.

  • Weather Downtime Sorted with SDA
    1 Jun 2010

    Working out the time a complex offshore project may be delayed or halted because of marine weather conditions has become more accurate with MetOcean Solutions Sequenced Downtime Analysis (SDA) tool.

    Oceanographer Dr Brett Beamsley of MetOcean Solutions presented SDA tool at a recent conference in Brisbane. SDA analyses a project’s timelines and weather requirements for execution – by activity – against the past 12 years of high-resolution historical weather conditions. In turn this drives effective project, resource and contract planning.

    “Quite simply, SDA analyses the start date and duration of each task in sequence, given the conditions it requires for execution, analyses how long the task will take and downtime in the light of weather experience, and then moves on to the next dependent task,” he says.

    “Job and task completion statistics can be determined for each year in the metocean database, providing inter-annual statistics as well as the impact of start date slippages.”

    First developed in 2005 and refined on numerous projects since then, SDA uses a Monte Carlo approach to test the cumulative effect of small, random delays to the overall project schedule; an additional feature to traditional downtime analysis techniques. SDA has been applied on offshore platform and facility installations, offshore maintenance projects, pipeline construction, and a range of port operations.

    Dr Beamsley says the time to call in MetOcean Solutions and undertake SDA is at the start of a project where SDA can help inform the critical project planning and costing stage.

    Read the technical paper here [Beamsley et al, Estimating Weather Downtime for Ocean Engineering using Sequential Downtime Analysis (SDA)].

  • Weather Forecast Drives Action on WeatherMap
    28 May 2010

    Go to WeatherMap.co.nz and organise your life.

    This ground-breaking site delivers weather forecasts by activity and includes site specific forecasts for thousands of golf courses, and boating and surf spots around New Zealand, as well as daily activities like walking the dog or putting out the laundry.

    Wes Warner of MetOcean Solutions says it’s the combination of the activity and the forecast which makes this product different.

    “We’ve tailor-made the weather information so you can plan your week by activity making the most of the weather,” says Wes.

    “You simply zoom into the map of New Zealand, find the region you’re interested in and click on the activity you want a forecast for, and double click on one of the icons that appear on the map.

    Wes says that WeatherMap gives a localised forecast, which is handy in New Zealand where conditions may be very different just 20km apart.

    The activity forecasts brought to you by WeatherMap are surfing, boating, golf, gardening, farming, laundry, shopping, pets, roads and airport forecasts as well as a general forecast. An additional quirky forecast provides a hair frizz factor rating – a must for working out when you may have a bad hair day!

    WeatherMap is driven by the sophisticated computer weather models run by MetOcean Solutions – providing high resolution and high accuracy.

    Find out what the weather is doing in your back yard at www.WeatherMap.co.nz

  • Potential Oil Spills Tracked with Innovative New Forecasting System.

    28 May 2010

    Virtual oil spills from drilling locations and offshore facilities around New Zealand are being tracked with a new product developed by MetOcean Solutions.

    The computer generated visual representation of potential oil spill resides on the MetOcean Solutions internet forecast portal, and is designed to give spill responders an instant ‘heads up’ on trajectory in the event of a spill incident.

    Dr David Johnson, Technical Director of Metocean Solutions, says rather than waiting on weather information to come through, and then running a trajectory model, responders can now have trajectory results available to them in real-time. “Normally, we provide a simulation result within 30 minutes of notice, but if an event occurs at 3 in the morning for example it will take longer to prepare.”

    “Timing is of the essence when major decisions are being made in the initial stages of an oil spill event,” says Dr Johnson.

    “With the spill forecasting system, as soon as a spill occurs, responders can see immediately how the oil spill is likely to behave over the next five days. This gives a good indication of what resources may be required and where they need to be deployed.” The initial simulation result would of course be backed up with a ‘hands on’ trajectory simulation, which can refine the release timing and magnitude.

    The spill simulations are undertaken every time the MetOcean Solutions weather forecast cycle is updated, which is six hourly for most locations. The system also works on a global scale; using the best available forecast data - which may be from a global scale model or a custom domain.

    The simulations need a fixed release point identified, making it particularly suitable for drilling platforms, production facilities and tanker moorings. However there is potential for other industries to make use of the product. Dr Johnson says the product can be to be adapted to track sewerage outfall plumes or bio-security events, for example.