May 20 - MeteoGroup has developed and integrated its own tidal currents model into its SPOS Onboard and RouteGuard services, which it claims will improve situational awareness and ETA planning.
The tidal current model has been integrated with the existing ocean current data, helping to calculate the impact on vessel speed and direction.
MeteoGroup says that the model has been tested against observations and local institute models and has been verified as accurate, offering realistic and valuable data for routing and monitoring purposes.
According to the weather forecasting service provider, the combination of ocean and tidal currents provides vessels with the ability to more realistically plan their voyages, improve safety and manage costs more efficiently.
In addition, claims MeteoGroup, the newly integrated tidal currents offer a better representation of ocean current conditions over the continental shelf, where tidal currents are extremely important to a vessel's stability.
Non-tidal ocean current data in SPOS and RouteGuard has also been upgraded, now offering updates every two hours, compared to previous once-daily updates.
