FORECASTING DRIFT
521
4.2
User interface
In the Norwegian emergency drift response services, a request is typically made by the duty officer to a meteorologist on watch at met.no,
who, in turn, starts a forecast run of the relevant model; the drift forecast information is then sent back to the requesting officer in an agreed
form. Since services for SAR, ship and oil drift have developed more
or less independently over the years, the interface between met.no and
the user has been somewhat different. However, the current development is moving away from manual operation and towards an automated
The
turned forecast information, on the other hand, is tailored to the needs
of the particular emergency agency. Typically, the user will require some
graphical products for quick assessment, but also forecast data to feed
into their own crisis management tools, such as GIS. The Leeway user
interface may serve as an example.
Figure 5 shows the Leeway request form that is filled out in a web
browser by the duty officer at JRCC in the event of a SAR emergency
or exercise. The request results in an automatic run of the Leeway
model using the default operational atmosphere and ocean model forcing data (cf. Figure 4). Forecast data are returned as a compressed
data file via email. The file is formatted so as to be readable by JRCC’s
SAR management tool. This tool has features tailored specifically to the
JRCC’s operations, such as overlaying on digital sea charts and calculating polygonal search areas. met.no maintains an in-house capability for
graphical rendition of the forecast results; this serves both as a backup
for the JRCC tool and as a development tool.
5.
Outlook
come standard ocean applications that address a clear demand from
society. Modeling techniques have advanced considerably over the past
30 years, from rule-of-thumb models (“3% of wind speed and 15 o to the
right”) to complex numerical and empirical models. The models governing the fate of the drifting things - ship hydrodynamics, small object
taxonomies and oil chemistry - are capable of giving increasingly detailed
information on their specific behavior in the sea. There are still, however,
significant deficiencies in these models; for example, object taxonomies
need to be expanded to cover more object classes.
Improvements in drift forecast skill are currently being sought in the
geophysical forecast data used to drive the drift models. Wind and wave
production via similar web-page request forms for user input.
re
Forecasting the drift of oil, ships and other floating objects have
be
forecasts are generally considered to be of good quality in the drift
521
4.2
User interface
In the Norwegian emergency drift response services, a request is typically made by the duty officer to a meteorologist on watch at met.no,
who, in turn, starts a forecast run of the relevant model; the drift forecast information is then sent back to the requesting officer in an agreed
form. Since services for SAR, ship and oil drift have developed more
or less independently over the years, the interface between met.no and
the user has been somewhat different. However, the current development is moving away from manual operation and towards an automated
The
turned forecast information, on the other hand, is tailored to the needs
of the particular emergency agency. Typically, the user will require some
graphical products for quick assessment, but also forecast data to feed
into their own crisis management tools, such as GIS. The Leeway user
interface may serve as an example.
Figure 5 shows the Leeway request form that is filled out in a web
browser by the duty officer at JRCC in the event of a SAR emergency
or exercise. The request results in an automatic run of the Leeway
model using the default operational atmosphere and ocean model forcing data (cf. Figure 4). Forecast data are returned as a compressed
data file via email. The file is formatted so as to be readable by JRCC’s
SAR management tool. This tool has features tailored specifically to the
JRCC’s operations, such as overlaying on digital sea charts and calculating polygonal search areas. met.no maintains an in-house capability for
graphical rendition of the forecast results; this serves both as a backup
for the JRCC tool and as a development tool.
5.
Outlook
come standard ocean applications that address a clear demand from
society. Modeling techniques have advanced considerably over the past
30 years, from rule-of-thumb models (“3% of wind speed and 15 o to the
right”) to complex numerical and empirical models. The models governing the fate of the drifting things - ship hydrodynamics, small object
taxonomies and oil chemistry - are capable of giving increasingly detailed
information on their specific behavior in the sea. There are still, however,
significant deficiencies in these models; for example, object taxonomies
need to be expanded to cover more object classes.
Improvements in drift forecast skill are currently being sought in the
geophysical forecast data used to drive the drift models. Wind and wave
production via similar web-page request forms for user input.
re
Forecasting the drift of oil, ships and other floating objects have
be
forecasts are generally considered to be of good quality in the drift