how maesk is optimizing the fleet bij using spos and meteo data from meteogroup

1. The forecast
Meteorological Technology International, the only true review of climate,
Editor
weather, oceanic prediction, measurement, and analysis technologies Christopher Hounsfield
(c.hounsfield@ukipme.com)
t was a very dark, system. It amazed me that the No sooner had the storm started
Assistant editor
I oppressive night, hot and
close. The nearest town was
company says there are up to 24,000
fatalities a year due to strikes, with
than it passed. My best friend and I
had completely forgotten about the Bunny Richards
(b.richards@ukipme.com)
more than 60km away. The sound of 10 times more injuries. Almost as exercise. But as the sky cleared, the
heavy gunfire was deafening. A impressive is that the longest single storm subsided and then the first Chief sub-editor
whole regiment of tanks (57) were flash detected was 120 miles long, green curtain gently fell down from Alex Bradley
firing their main 120mm rifled guns; and lasted nearly two seconds. the highest reaches of the ionosphere. Sub-editor
each tank was also blasting off tracer Despite being ‘in the field’ for As I lay on my back atop a grassy William Baker
bullets at a rate of knots from its two almost three weeks, this night firing hillock, smoking a cigarette, G&T in Production manager
7.62mm coaxial machine guns. exercise was different: I noticed a hand, the amazing phenomenon of Ian Donovan
Behind this were advancing two change – a fresh chill in the the aurora borealis (northern lights) Production team
Carole Doran, Lewis Hopkins,
battalions of infantry, about 1,200 atmosphere and a thick blackness began to play its dance across the
Cassie Inns, Robyn Skalsky
men, each soldier heavily armed and that was creeping in from the west. night sky. Mesmerizing; tranquility
using it. Behind them were two The advancing gloom was amid mayhem, with greens, pinks, Publication & sales director
mortar troops, and behind them a interrupted with almighty flashes and blues weaving and waving across Barry Smith
battery of 155mm artillery. All this within, and a rumble that was the heavens, all caused by emissions
metal was getting really busy, all starting to grow even louder than of photons in the Earth’s upper Art director
ammunition was live. This was the massive roar around me. It did atmosphere, which are excited by the James Sutcliffe
BATUS (British Army Training Unit not take long: within just a few collision of solar wind particles being Design team
Suffield) in a remote, but large corner minutes the darkness swept across funneled and accelerated along the Louise Adams, Andy Bass,
Anna Davie, Andrew Locke,
of the Canadian prairies. us, and the rain hit, but this was Earth’s magnetic field. Apparently,
Craig Marshall, Nicola Turner,
On this particular night I was something to be ignored. We were storm skies are more prone to the Julie Welby, Ben White
stuck somewhere in the middle of under a vast sky. The nearest tree spectacle, as storms leave an ‘auroral Proofreaders
the slow move forward. I was a was miles away – this was the oval’ open, particularly in this region. Aubrey Jacobs-Tyson,
‘battle captain’, ensuring fuel and prairies – and bolts of lightning were The only way to predict this is to Frank Millard
ammo went to the forward units. But flying across, from horizon to study solar winds. It seemed the
the lack of involvement in the horizon, up and down, and all atmosphere was doing its job of Editorial director
excitement was compensated by the joined. It was absolutely spectacular. keeping the radiation away, and I was Anthony James
greatest meteorological experience I Apparently an Irish Guards vehicle happy to watch the greatest light Managing director
have ever witnessed. was hit, with minor burn injuries, show above Earth as a mighty encore Graham Johnson
to the greatest light show ‘on’ Earth. CEO
In this issue of MTI the well- but they had been shooting at our
Tony Robinson
established company Vaisala writes tank bins for hours, so rough justice. The inclusion of ‘total’ lightning
about lightning detection. It It is said that streaks of lightning sensors at weather stations allows
describes the establishment of a with no obstacle can easily travel detection of all types of lightning,
worldwide network that can detect across 50 miles of sky, and I am and therefore an increased ability to
lightning storms and, based on certain this is what I witnessed. ‘nowcast’ tracking of severe weather
existing data and modeling, predict Fueled by massive daytime heating, events. It could save lives, and a few ISSN 2042-7190
exactly how the lightning storm will the atmosphere is often highly Irish Guards’ eyebrows. published by
perform, expand, dissipate, or unstable, and extreme weather UKIP Media & Events Ltd
behave – an extraordinary global virtually impossible to predict. Christopher Hounsfield, editor Contact us at:
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4 • ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TERN ATION A L M AY 2011

3. Weather routing
by Keith Thomson
SHIP’S LOG
Weather routing provides
a major role in vessel economy
A combination of weather forecasting and the study of ocean currents has led to the
rise of the shipping route agencies
eather routing of ocean-going compilation of atmospheric and meteorological centres and private
W shipping has been practiced for
many hundreds of years. Early Arab
oceanographic data from ships’ log books
meant that climatological averages of ocean
meteorological companies, and by
applying available surface and upper air
traders used the regular monsoons of the weather and ocean currents became forecasts to transoceanic shipping, it
Arabian Sea to navigate to East Africa and to available to mariners, and this information became possible to effectively avoid much
the Indian subcontinent, while 15th century was used by early pioneers to develop heavy weather while generally sailing
sailors took advantage of their knowledge of seasonally recommended routes for sailing shorter routes than previously.
prevailing trade winds and currents to ships and early steam-powered vessels. In the last 20 years, the rapid
optimize their routes from Spain and In the mid 20 th century the modern development of computers, the internet and
Portugal to the New World and back. concept of ship weather routing began to communications technology, together with
In the 19th century, systematic be put into operation by national advances in meteorological analysis
6 • ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TERN ATION A L M AY 2011

4. Weather routing
“The more accurate the starting
analysis of the atmosphere from
which the model is run, the better
the final forecast will be”
A typical bulk carrier which makes regular use Output of forecast winds (wind barbs) and wave height (colored contours) from present day
of weather routing services atmospheric and ocean wave models
techniques and atmospheric modeling, has to the maritime industry for more than 20 pre-determined goal (fuel savings, avoiding
made a much more detailed and accurate years. The company maintains two damage to cargo on deck and so on) and
weather routing service widely available to operations centers; one in the USA and one those services dedicated to passively
marine users on all scales. in the UK. Together the two offices deliver tracking a vessel’s progress to evaluate the
24 hour marine weather forecasting and speed and consumption performance for
Weather routing services ship routing services to a global client base. contractual purposes. In the case of
There are several private companies and Across the industry there are different Aerospace & Marine these services are
publicly funded bodies providing ship variables to the traditional weather routing Optimum Voyage Routing (OVR) and
routing services. One such private company service. To a large extent two different Performance Monitoring (PMO).
is Aerospace & Marine International (AMI) groups can be identified; those actively The goal of OVR is to develop the best
which has been providing weather services optimizing a vessel’s sea passage to achieve a route for a ship based on existing weather
ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TER N ATION A L M AY 2011 • 7

6. Weather routing
forecasts, ocean current patterns, ship
characteristics and special cargo
requirements. For most transits this will
mean the minimum transit time that avoids
OPTIMUM SHIP ROUTING
significant risk to the vessel, crew and For most transits optimum shipping routing to the voyage. A preliminary routing
cargo. The aim is not to avoid all adverse will mean the minimum transit time that message is transmitted to the master of a
weather but to find the best balance to avoids significant risk to the vessel, crew vessel prior to departure with a detailed
minimize time of transit and fuel and cargo. The goal is not to avoid all forecast of expected storm tracks, an
consumption without placing the vessel at adverse weather but to find the best initial route proposal with reasoning
risk to weather damage or crew injury. balance to minimize time of transit and fuel behind the recommendation, and also
During the voyage, regular forecasts and consumption without placing the vessel at the expected weather conditions to be
route recommendations are provided to the risk to weather damage or crew injury. encountered along that route.
vessel to aid the master in choosing the Route planning normally will start by This allows the master to better plan
best route as described. reviewing the appropriate Pilot Chart his route and offers an opportunity to
In contrast to active routing, the goal of Atlases and Sailing Directions (planning communicate with the service any
performance monitoring is to measure and guides) to determine the normal weather special concerns that he or she might
prepare a report on the performance of the patterns, weather risks and prevailing have due to special cargo requirements
subject vessel in terms of speed and ocean currents. The Routing Service then or ship condition. Once the vessel
consumption of fuel along its route versus reviews recent weather patterns and departs, the vessel’s progress is
the contractual speed and consumption for weather forecast charts to determine the monitored closely with weather and route
the same vessel. This report requires an most likely conditions during the course updates sent as needed.
independent analysis to determine what loss
of speed was due to weather and currents,
and what was due to the vessel’s surface has meant that dynamic ocean
‘malfunction’ if any. current models are now initialized with
The route forecaster uses specialized real-time surface elevation data. This
geographic information system software allows much greater precision in the
which enables display of the vessel route modeling of ocean currents down to a fine
on charts overlain with wind, wave, scale of a few miles and it means that ships
current, and several other types of can be routed much more accurately in
relevant meteorological factors such as sea relation to adverse or favorable currents.
ice, icebergs, and freezing spray. The route For example, strong current gyres in the
waypoints are plotted and compared to Gulf of Mexico change only slowly over a
several other reasonable variations of the period of days and these can be used to
same route. The full set of routes is then great effect by the routing agency to reduce
simulated taking into account the vessel sailing times by a couple of hours for the
characteristics, forecast weather and ocean addition of a few extra miles. Slower vessels
currents so that the optimum route can Ocean current chart showing a vessel route to are much more affected by currents, as the
easily be determined. Once underway the take maximum advantage of favorable Brazil speed of the current is a much larger
westerly current
vessel’s actual positions are added to the percentage of the vessel speed, and the
route, and the vessel’s progress is vessel remains under the influence of the
continuously monitored and updated graph on the previous page. This means that current for longer. A good example is shown
when necessary, due to adverse weather or vessels can be routed to avoid an expected in the graph above left which depicts a
other factors. storm which may not even exist yet, but typical westbound track taking advantage of
which with a high level of certainty will the current patterns off the north-east coast
Latest technologies in forecasting form somewhere ahead along the vessel’s of Brazil, close to the Equator.
There have been major advances in recent present track. The global models are also A very strong current flows parallel to
years in meteorological analysis now beginning to pick up some tropical the coast from east to west throughout the
techniques and atmospheric modeling. storm development days before the storm year, and this strong current occasionally
Much effort has been applied to has even been officially recognized by the breaks down into an eddy so that there is a
developing methods to assimilate the vast respective regional forecast centers. branch moving from west to east some way
amounts of available satellite and other Another area where there has been a to the north. A slow vessel, say a drilling rig
forms of remotely measured data into significant improvement is in the modeling being towed by a tug, can save three days or
global atmospheric models. of ocean currents. In the past, current data more on a trip from the Gulf of Mexico to
The more accurate the starting analysis was painstakingly extracted from ships’ Brazil despite adding 100-200 miles to the
of the atmosphere from which the model is logs by comparing distance sailed over journey, by remaining to the north of the
run, the better the final forecast will be. As a ground with distance actually sailed strong adverse current core and in the
result these models are now capable of through the water, and these observations following current branch of the eddy.
producing accurate global forecasts of winds were collated into charts of monthly Vessels sailing east to west stay further
and waves for up to a week ahead, and to averages which were the main source of south within the core of the current and in
give some detail about larger scale patterns ocean current information for masters and this way can improve voyage times by
for another week beyond that. other interested parties. The introduction several days.
An example of the type of output of satellites capable of measuring to a high These regions of strong current were
available from such models is shown in the degree of accuracy the elevation of the sea depicted on the historic monthly averaged
ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TER N ATION A L M AY 2011 • 9

7. Weather routing
Tropical storm charts depicting historic and
forecast track and area of uncertainty in relation to
a deep sea tow’s track
charts, but the day-to-day fine detail was
not available from these charts and masters
would find the favorable currents or avoid
the adverse currents by trial and error.
Nowadays the routing company has access
to this fine scale current detail and voyages
can be tweaked and updated on a daily basis
to ensure the best and most favorable route
is used which takes maximum advantage of
the currents.
Other routing considerations
Other non-meteorological factors also
influence the choice of routes available.
A recent and unforeseen development
has been the rapid increase in piracy in
the Indian Ocean originating from the
failed state of Somalia. As recently as five
years ago, vessels sailed with impunity
across the Arabian Sea into and out of the
Gulf of Aden.
Attacks were carried out by small groups
of pirates in skiffs which were vulnerable to
strong winds and rough seas. The attacks
then began to become more sophisticated,
making use of larger hijacked vessels as busiest sea routes in the world connecting Another factor which is having a major
mother ships, pushing the area at risk across the Far East with Europe via the Red Sea impact on vessel routing is the price of fuel.
the Arabian Sea to the west coast of India. and Suez Canal is now a risky undertaking, Recent geopolitical events have conspired to
This has meant a drastic change in routing and some operators are sending their vessels send the price of crude oil to historically
patterns over the area, so that safety is now around South Africa and adding many days high levels.
the sole concern. What used to be one of the to their voyages. Traditional weather routing still plays a
vital role in minimizing fuel consumption,
but other methods of fuel conservation are
being practiced regularly by operators,
including sailing at most economical speed
or suggesting an optimal RPM setting for a
given voyage. All these ‘variants’ to
traditional weather routing continue to
be totally dependant on accurate weather
and ocean currents data to provide
meaningful advice to the vessel. These
methods will continue to be expanded on
in the coming months and years, especially
in scenarios of high fuel price and
increased concern over greenhouse
emissions regulations for shipping.
Weather routing is a tool which can be
used to reduce fuel consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions in the global
shipping industry. Collaboration between
routing providers and vessel operators will
result in improvement of existing services
and development of new ideas, ensuring that
weather routing continues to play an
important role in vessel economy and safety
in the future. ❚
Keith Thomson is the UK operations manager of
Five days outlook animated wind and wave charts for Atlantic north east
Aerospace & Marine International (UK) Ltd
10 • ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TERN ATION A L M AY 2011

9. Voyage case study
by Aiste Hoffbeck
PORT OUT,
STARBOARD HOME
How the world’s largest container
carrier uses met data to save fuel
By analyzing information on wind, waves, and currents, Eco Voyage is proving to be a
useful cost-cutting tool in commercial shipping, as well as an aid in oceanic research
co Voyage is a tool that was designed
E to provide the planner of a trans-
ocean voyage with information on
optimal speed through every part of the
journey. This enables the propulsion power
to remain as constant as possible to obtain
the lowest possible fuel consumption and
CO2 emissions. Based on vessel particulars
and detailed up-to-date information on
expected currents, wind, waves, and depth
restrictions along the planned route, the
optimal power and revolutions/minute (rpm)
profile can be chosen. This way unwanted
oscillations in the ship’s power can be
avoided while still maintaining a fixed
estimated time of arrival. The improved tool
has an impressive potential: by utilizing
environmental information fuel savings of
0.5-1% are expected.
The project was developed by the Vessel
Performance section in Maersk Maritime
Technology (MMT), in cooperation with
Maersk Line Vessel Management (MLVM)
and Maersk Tankers (MT). The development
is supported by The A. P. Moller Foundation.
Eco Voyage functions in a way that
updated sea current information is received
from other vessels on the same route
through a central server. In addition, the
weather forecast program provides wind,
wave, and current forecasts. This
information is used to plan the most optimal
and efficient route for every vessel.
Testing of the system is almost finished
and the Vessel Performance section in
Maersk Maritime Technology is now ready
to evaluate the results. To illustrate how the
program works, Kim Henriksen, the Eco
Voyage prime mover in the vessel
performance section of MMT, prepared an
exclusive simulation of calculating and
planning a voyage for one of the company’s
12 • ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY INTERN ATION A L M AY 2011

10. Voyage case study
“The improved tool has an
impressive potential: by utilizing
environmental information fuel
savings of 0.5-1% are expected”
ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TER N ATION A L M AY 2011 • 13

11. Voyage case study
vessels. The voyage is from Hong Kong to
Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia with one
alternative route following the Vietnam
coast and the other one in open sea.
Focus on currents
The first step in preparing the voyage plan is
looking at the navigational requirements –
the shortest route at deep water. However,
there are restrictions, such as traffic zones,
that need to be followed correctly. For each
voyage a passage plan needs to be made that
describes the route and that route must be
checked within an electronic chart display
and information system (ECDIS). “We need Hub points are used to segment the voyage and Vessels can receive updated current information
to be aware of all points where the route will make information sharing more precise from sister vessels that are on the same route
change and these points need to be included
in route description,” explains Henriksen.
“We call them waypoints.”
This is where the weather comes in.
When creating an overview of waypoints,
one should look into the weather forecasts
for the period of the voyage. Of course, it is
especially bad weather that is of most
interest, but sea currents also get a fair share
of attention as avoiding a head current can
significantly save on the amount of fuel.
After the route is defined in the ECDIS, it
gets transferred into Eco Voyage program,
where additional information such as speed
restrictions, shallow water or planning
restrictions can be added. A map function
shows the route and a number of hub points Shortest way on the map does not mean the most Voyage planning includes weather forecasts
that are used for segmenting the voyage and efficient voyage, therefore routes are optimized and prediction of sea currents
for sharing sea current information with
others. The observations of currents from
sister vessels are received from a server including a prediction of ocean currents.
located in Copenhagen. This program does have a relatively simple
The latest update of the program also model for calculating speed loss due to wind
includes zones with increased pirate activity. and waves. It is possible to calculate up to
This is important as vessels are required to four route alternatives of which three follow
sail faster through such areas, as speed navigational lines: Rhumb Line (direct line),
remains the best method for preventing Great Circle (shortest distance) or a
pirate attacks. In this case Eco Voyage combination of both.
calculates the higher speed in pirate- “There is one more alternative and that is
populated areas that need to be matched an optimal route where an algorithm
with lower speed later in the journey to optimizes the balance between extra distance
compensate for increased fuel consumption. and speed loss,” says Henriksen. “Sometimes
Calculations for passing shallow water the longer way might take less time and vice
are similar, but in this case, lower speed is versa. But voyages are not equally easy to
advised that need to be made up for at a optimize, as the waypoints of the original
later stage in order to stick to the schedule. route are kept and the more waypoints there
are the less optimization is possible.”
Many route choices After calculation, the influence of the
Most of the voyages follow a fixed schedule weather on the speed will be available in the
where arrival and departure is known, and Eco Voyage program. Eco Voyage has an
to save fuel, Maersk vessels try to avoid advantage as it is working on the same
wasting time that is caused both by late database and models as the vessel
departure and early arrival. Therefore speed performance monitoring system and
needs to be carefully calculated and that is therefore all information of vessel’s
done with regard to the effects of currents. performance is up-to-date. Therefore
Eco Voyage is a flexible program that can benefit
both performance and science because of the data
After it is done, the route description is weather predictions are important, but their
collected transferred to the route planning program in influence can vary, depending on the overall
which the weather forecasts can be seen, condition of the vessel.
14 • ME TEOROLOGICA L TECHNOLOGY IN TERN ATION A L M AY 2011