Marine Weather Research Articles

Automatic Reading and Reporting Weather Information from Surface Fax Charts for Ships Sailing in Actual Northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

This study is aimed to improve the intelligence level, efficiency, and accuracy of ship safety and security systems by contributing to the development of marine weather forecasting. The accurate and prompt recognition of weather fax charts is very important for navigation safety. This study employed many artificial intelligent (AI) methods including a vectorization approach and target recognition algorithm to automatically detect the severe weather information from Japanese and US weather charts. This enabled the expansion of an existing auto-response marine forecasting system’s applications toward north Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, thus enhancing decision-making capabilities and response measures for sailing ships at actual sea. The OpenCV image processing method and YOLOv5s/YOLO8vn algorithm were utilized to make template matches and locate warning symbols and weather reports from surface weather charts. After these improvements, the average accuracy of the model significantly increased from 0.920 to 0.928, and the detection rate of a single image reached a maximum of 1.2 ms. Additionally, OCR technology was applied to retract texts from weather reports and highlighted the marine areas where dense fog and great wind conditions are likely to occur. Finally, the field tests confirmed that this auto and intelligent system could assist the navigator within 2–3 min and thus greatly enhance the navigation safety in specific areas in the sailing routes with minor text-based communication costs.

Buoys for marine weather data monitoring and LoRaWAN communication

Climate change not only affects the environment directly but also challenges the existence of human civilization. Changes observed in the marine environment indicate the planet's health. Continuous ocean observations (ambient conditions, water quality, aquatic life, and disaster management) are crucial for checking and balancing climate change. This research aims to design three prototype smart moored buoys suitable for environmental monitoring. During the project, biconical buoys with a diameter of 30 cm and a height of 80 cm were fabricated. The buoys were fitted with temperature, salinity, and pH sensors to monitor and gather meteorological data. The collected data is transmitted to the cloud environment through a wireless communication device which is installed in all buoys through a LoRaWAN gateway, where it is stored and retrieved for analysis. The energy requirement of these buoys for driving the sensor network and data transmission are taken care by harvesting the solar energy through photovoltaic panels and the secondary energy storage device housed in the buoy. These buoys are installed along the coast in the municipality of Villasimius, Sardinia, Italy. These buoys have been placed within the marine protected area of Capo Carbonara, Sardinia, Italy, at a suitable distance from the communication gateway.

Annual Coastal Boulder Mobility Detected in 2017–2021 Remote Sensing Imagery and Its Relation to Marine Storms (Gulf of Taranto, Mediterranean Sea)

Landward displacements of coastal boulders are geomorphological signatures of sea flooding and erosion processes. In this study, using open-access resources that do not require the integration of specialist software, the 2017 to 2021 annual mobility of medium, coarse, and very coarse boulders spread over about 100 km of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Taranto (Italy, Mediterranean Sea) was explored. The boulder displacement data obtained from remote sensing imagery were verified and refined by means of geomorphological field investigation. The main results are the following: (1) A large interannual variability in the boulder mobility was found; (2) storm Detlef, which crossed over the Mediterranean during 11–13 November 2019, was recognized as the cause of a massive displacement phenomenon; and (3) the marine weather conditions driving the investigated morphodynamic process were inferred.

Model validation and applications of wave and current forecasts from the Hong Kong Observatory's Operational Marine Forecasting System

The Hong Kong Observatory has been running an Operational Marine Forecasting System (OMFS) adapted from the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) coupled with the WaveWatch III and SWAN wave models to provide wave, current and sea temperature forecasts up to 144 h twice a day since December 2021. To facilitate users’ interpretation of model forecasts of significant wave height and current speed in coastal predictions and open seas which are of particular significance in high wind situations, model forecasts were validated against moored buoy observations and wave recorder measurements near the shores of Hong Kong and drifting buoy data over the South China Sea, as well as Mercator Ocean model reanalysis in 2022. The validation results showed that the wave forecasts generally agreed well with the buoy observations with coefficient of determination (R2) of around 0.7 and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of less than 0.2 m up to 72 h ahead. The R2 for sea current forecasts ranged between 0.4 and 0.6, and the RMSE was around 8 to 11 cm/s in near shores up to T + 144 forecast hours. Validation against drifting buoy demonstrated that the trend of current forecasts generally agreed well with the measurements. RMSE of surface current forecasts over open seas ranged from 19 cm/s for 24-hour forecast to around 30 cm/s for 144-hour forecast when compared against Mercator Ocean reanalysis. Results from the current downscaling approach could serve as a benchmark reference for HKO to enhance OMFS in the future. In this paper, applications of model forecasts in the provision of marine weather services in Hong Kong are also introduced.

The Importance and Scientific Value of Long Weather and Climate Records; Examples of Historical Marine Data Efforts across the Globe

The rescue, digitization, quality control, preservation, and utilization of long and high quality meteorological and climate records, particularly related to historical marine data, are crucial for advancing our understanding of the Earth’s climate system. In combination with land and air measurements, historical marine records serve as foundational pillars in linking present and past weather and climate information, offering essential insights into natural climate variability, extreme events in marine areas, baseline data for assessing current changes, and inputs for enhancing predictive climate models and reanalyses. This paper provides an overview of rescue activities covering marine weather data over the past centuries and presents and highlights several ongoing projects across the world and how the data are used in an integrative and international framework. Current and future continuous efforts in data rescue, digitization, quality control, and the development of temporally high-resolution meteorological and climatological observations from oceans, will greatly help to further complete our understanding and knowledge of the Earth’s climate system, including extremes, as well as improve the quality of reanalysis.

Marine heatwave events strengthen the intensity of tropical cyclones

Marine heatwaves become more frequent and stronger due to global warming. It is necessary to clarify how and by which process marine heatwaves affect marine weather systems. Here, we examine how marine heatwaves strengthen tropical cyclones. We analyze 128 tropical cyclones that intensified with marine heatwaves and 184 tropical cyclones that intensified without marine heatwaves over the western North Pacific and Atlantic. Marine heatwaves finally lead to a maximum intensity of 35.4% stronger (106.72 kts) tropical cyclone. Notably, satellite data reveal that marine heatwaves are associated with precipitation-richer tropical cyclone conditions despite similar tropical cyclone intensities. Due to the increased latent heat flux during marine heatwaves, intensified precipitation near the tropical cyclone center contributes to the intensification process. This study provides insights into how more frequent marine heatwaves by global warming impact tropical cyclones.

Validation and Application of the Accu-Waves Operational Platform for Wave Forecasts at Ports

This paper presents a recently developed Operational Forecast Platform (OFP) for prevailing sea conditions at very important ports worldwide (Accu-Waves). The OFP produces reliable high-resolution predictions of wave characteristics in and around ocean ports. Its goal is to support safer navigation, predict possible port downtime, assist vessel approaching, enhance management of towing services, and bolster secure ship maneuvering in busy ports around the globe. Accu-Waves OFP is based on integrated, high-resolution wave modelling over the continental shelf and in coastal areas that incorporates data from global- and regional-scale, open-sea wave and ocean circulation forecasts as boundary conditions. The coupling, nesting, calibration, and implementation of the models are reported and discussed in this paper, concerning 50 selected areas near and inside significant port basins. The detailed setup of the Accu-Waves OFP and its sub-system services is also provided regarding three-day forecasts at three-hourly intervals. The validation of the wave forecast system against in situ observations from wave buoys in coastal areas of the USA, Belgium, and Spain, as well as other model predictions by established OFPs, seems very promising, with performance skill scores ranging from adequate to very good. An exceptional case of stormy seas under severe marine weather conditions with very high wave maxima (>10 m) in the port of Algeciras is further discussed, confirming the good performance of the Accu-Waves OFP.

Evaluation of in situ observations on Marine Weather Observer during Typhoon Sinlaku

Abstract. The mobile ocean weather observation system, named Marine Weather Observer (MWO), developed by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), consists of a fully solar-powered, unoccupied vehicle and meteorological and hydrological instruments. One of the MWOs completed a long-term continuous observation, actively approaching the center of Typhoon Sinlaku from 24 July to 2 August 2020, over the South China Sea. The in situ and high-temporal-resolution (1 min) observations obtained from MWO were analyzed and evaluated through comparison with the observations made by two types of buoys during the evolution of Typhoon Sinlaku. First, the air pressure and wind speed measured by MWO are in good agreement with those measured by the buoys before the typhoon, reflecting the equivalent measurement capabilities of the two methods under normal sea conditions. The sea surface temperature (SST) between MWO and the mooring buoys is highly consistent throughout the observation period, indicating the high stability and accuracy of SST measurements from MWO during the typhoon evolution. The air temperature and relative humidity measured by MWO have significant diurnal variations, generally lower than those measured by the buoys, which may be related to the mounting height and sensitivity of sensors. When actively approaching the typhoon center, the air pressure from MWO can reflect some drastic and subtle changes, such as a sudden drop to 980 hPa, which is difficult to obtain by other observation methods. As a mobile meteorological and oceanographic observation station, MWO has shown its unique advantages over traditional observation methods, and the results preliminarily demonstrate the reliable observation capability of MWO in this paper.

Acquisition of Marine Weather Information Suitable for Korean Coastal Area Characteristics Using Deep Learning Techniques

Acquisition of Marine Weather Information Suitable for Korean Coastal Area Characteristics Using Deep Learning Techniques

How ocean beach recreational quality fits with safety issues? An analysis of risky behaviours in France

Beaches are highly attractive environments providing a wealth of recreational services. However, many people drown unintentionally on beaches worldwide. In the face of these dangers, the establishment of supervised swimming areas remains one of the most effective preventive measures. Despite the risk of drowning, many beachgoers choose to recreate outside supervised areas or at unpatrolled beaches. Based on a representative survey of 240 beachgoers living in the south-west of France, we combine variable clustering method and logistic regressions to predict risky location choices. Surfers, anglers and beachgoers who practice beach sports are more likely to go outside the lifeguard supervised areas at patrolled beaches than those who do not. Collecting shells or having a picnic also encourages people to go to unsafe places more often. Individuals who do not like facilities are more likely to go to unpatrolled beaches. Neither gender nor the distance travelled to recreate at the beach has any significant statistical influence in the models. Two types of information seeking behaviours can be identified. Individuals who like waves and collect marine and weather information before going to the beach are more likely than others to bath outside of patrolled areas. In comparison, those who do not like waves do not necessarily seek to improve their knowledge base on the subject, but instead look for more detailed information on supervision/lifesaving patrols. These results highlight the need for a broader beach safety perspective with stronger interactions between lifeguards, beachgoers, and designers of recreational facilities. Management implicationsIn this study, we demonstrated how preferences regarding outdoor recreation and beach recreational quality indirectly cause beachgoers to expose themselves to danger. It's therefore necessary to design recreational facilities that encourage people to remain in supervised, patrolled areas. It is also important to build a comprehensive beach safety perspective that includes lifeguards', recreational facilities designers' as well as beachgoers' representations and practices. On unpatrolled beaches, the time needed for rescuers to arrive may be delayed. Surfers and anglers who go to unpatrolled beaches more often than others could act as by stander rescuers if properly trained. The results underline the need to rethink widespread communication and prevention policy design. The findings show that people who declared themselves informed about marine weather conditions before coming to the beach are more likely than others to bathe outside supervised areas.

Why, and where, is commercial fishing gear lost? A global review and case study of Pacific Canada

Derelict fishing gear is a global problem, damaging marine ecosystems via habitat degradation and trapping marine life, thereby impacting fisheries. We conducted a global review of reasons for commercial gear loss, and used the findings to design a survey focused on coastal British Columbia (BC), Canada. We conducted dockside and on-line surveys of commercial fishers to record their experiences with lost gear across net, line, and trap gear types. The most common reasons for gear loss from the global review were interactions with other fishing vessels and their gear, marine weather, and snagging on submerged features. Survey results of 29 fishers in BC indicated that snagging gear on rough substrate was the most important reason for loss across all gear categories, followed by seafloor type. Other reasons for gear loss varied by net, line, and trap gear type. Understanding reasons for gear loss is important to reduce losses.

Insights on the Extreme Storm Surge Event of the 22 November 2022 in the Venice Lagoon

The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) manages the national sea state real time monitoring system for Italy, which consists of the National Sea Level Network (RMN), the North Adriatic and Venice Lagoon Sea Level Network (RMLV), the National Wave Networks (RON), and a marine weather forecasting system. These systems are particularly deployed to monitor and predict storm surges that affect the northern part of the Adriatic Sea and the Venice Lagoon, usually causing damages and morphological impacts over the highly anthropized coastal areas. On 22 November 2022, an extreme storm surge event occurred in the northern Adriatic Sea, producing severe damages on its coastline. Venice and the surrounding urban settlements have been protected from flooding thanks to the operation of the Mo.S.E. (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) system, a set of artificial barriers built to isolate the lagoon from the sea in case of extreme high tides. Coastal flooding prevention measures, such as storm-surge barriers, are indeed being widely adopted globally because of the accelerating rise in sea levels. An analysis of this extreme event is presented here to highlight the functionality and the usefulness of the ISPRA sea state monitoring system. In particular, the analysis of the as-if scenario reproducing the natural tide propagation within the lagoon, neglecting the operation of the Mo.S.E. system, can only be pursued by using hydrodynamic models forced using extensive observed data. Results highlight that the “not-regulated” sea level would have exceeded 200 cm above the reference datum at Chioggia, a threshold never recorded in the Venice Lagoon since sea level monitoring systems have been operational.

The impacts of extreme marine weather and marine scientific and technological innovation on marine economic development: Evidence form China’s coastal regions

The extreme marine weather is a very vital factor and has important implications for of marine economic development. However, there is a lack of systematic and quantitative analyses of its impact on the marine economic development. Here, we study the impacts of extreme marine weather on marine economic development of 11 coastal regions in China, using the dynamic panel model. We found that extreme marine weather exerts a significant negative impact on the marine economic development. The marine scientific and technological innovation promotes marine economic development in a prominent manner. The marine scientific and technological innovation slows down the unfavorable impact of extreme marine weather on the marine economy. After considering different industries for marine economic development and heterogeneity, we found that extreme marine weather and marine scientific and technological innovation have a great impact on marine economic development in the tertiary industry and the areas with high development concerning marine economy level, while deliver a small impact on the marine economic development in the primary industry and the areas low development level. This paper empirically studies the relationship between the two variables of marine extreme weather and marine science and technology innovation and its impact on marine economic development, enriches the research perspective of extreme weather on marine economic development, and provides new method evidence for improving the level of marine scientific and technological innovation and promoting the development of marine economy.

CLASSIFICATION FOR BIG DATA DRIVEN MARINE WEATHER FORECASTING USING MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

Marine weather forecasting has raised sizeable awareness in numerous ocean related domains. With immeasurable portion of data to handle with, big data problem solving unfolds gateways for abundance of predictions. Machine Learning (ML) is an essential algorithm for big data prediction. However with the increasing size and nature of data i.e., Big Data, Marine Weather Forecasting with Big Data with minimum time, error and maximum accuracy is of major concern to be addressed. In this work, a method called, Perceptred-based Feature and Kriging Gradient Boost Classification (PF-KGBC) is introduced with big data with the objective of improving the prediction performance marine weather with high accuracy and less time consumption. The PF-KGBC method is split into two parts. They are feature selection using perceptron classifier model and classification using Kriging Ensemble extreme Gradient Boost for marine weather forecasting. With the assistance of supervised learning algorithm based on perceptron classifier that involves a functional input represented by vector of numbers belongs to particular class. Based on linear predictor function set of weights are integrated with feature vector to make essential marine weather feature vector. After feature selection process, Kriging Ensemble extreme Gradient Boost Classification is performed with the purpose of forecasting marine weather data. Here, the weak learner is combined to form strong classifier. Kriging regression estimates the dependent data variation when any of factors or values in independent data gets changed. With this accurate marine weather prediction with high accuracy and lesser time consumption is ensured. Meanwhile, we analyzed the results of the proposed PF- KGBC method compared with other conventional methods, and the running performance on the Java platform. The results show that the proposed method achieved satisfactory prediction results and improvements were observed in terms of accuracy, time and error rate considerably. Keywords: Machine Learning, Perceptron, Feature Selection, Kriging, Gradient Boost, Classification, Ensemble

Ridge Regularized Imputed Scaled Clipping Normalization Based Pre-processing for Marine Weather Forecasting

Ridge Regularized Imputed Scaled Clipping Normalization Based Pre-processing for Marine Weather Forecasting

Performance analysis of code division multiplexing communication under evaporation duct environment

The evaporation duct is an effective means for realizing non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless transmission over the sea. However, the effects of marine weather conditions on electromagnetic propagation have rarely been studied. In this study, the influence of the marine atmospheric environment on electromagnetic propagation was analyzed through numerical simulation. Additionally, the impacts of antenna height, transmission distance, and electromagnetic wave frequency on path loss were studied. Finally, the link capacity of the code division multiplexing (CDM) communication system in the evaporation duct environment was studied via numerical analysis and simulations. Simulation results demonstrated that CDM communication technology can improve the link capacity under an evaporation duct compared with that of the spread-spectrum communication technology.

Weakening of Coastlines and Coastal Erosion in the Gulf of Guinea: The Case of the Kribi Coast in Cameroon

For more than four decades, the Gulf of Guinea’s coasts have been undergoing a significant phenomenon of erosion, resulting from the pressures of both anthropogenic and marine weather forcings. From the coasts of West Africa (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria) to those of Central Africa (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon), the phenomenon has been growing for more than four decades. The southern Cameroonian coastline from Kribi to Campo has become the scene of significant environmental dynamics that render it vulnerable to coastal erosion, which appears to be the major hazard of this coastal territory and causes a gradual degradation of the vegetative cover, thereby leading to the degradation of the coast’s land/ground cover and human-made infrastructure. The objective of this work is to analyze the kinematics of the Kribian coastline between 1973 and 2020; to quantify the levels of retreat, accretion, and stability; and finally, to discuss the factors influencing the evolution of the coastline. The methodological approach is based on the large-scale processing of Landsat images with a spatial resolution of 30 m. Then, small-scale processing is carried out around the autonomous port of Kribi using Pléiades and Google Earth images from the years 2013, 2018, and 2020 with a 0.5 m spatial resolution. The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 5 and ArcMap 10.5® tool are used to model coastal kinematics. In addition, the dynamics of the agro-industrial plantations are assessed via satellite images and landscape perception. Environmental degradation is measured with respect to the entire Cameroonian coastline through the supervised classification of Landsat images (1986–2020). The results show that erosion is in its initial phase in Kribi because significant retreats of the coastline are noticeable over the period from 2015–2020. Thus, between 1973 and 2020, the linear data present a certain stability. In total, +72.32% of the line remained stable, with values of +1.3% for accretion and +26.33% for erosion—obtained from Landsat images of 30 m resolution—with an average retreat of +1.3 m/year and an average accretion of 0.9 m/year between 1973–2020. Based on high-resolution images, between 2013 and 2019, the average retreat of the coastline on the Kribian coast was −8.5 m/year and the average accretion was about 7 m/year. Agro-industrial plantations are responsible for environmental degradation. Thus, at SOCAPALM in Apouh, there has been a clear growth in plantations, which has fallen from 53% in 1990 to 78% in 2020, i.e., an increase of 25% of its baseline area. This is linked to the fact that plantations are growing significantly, with increases of 16% in 1990, 28% in 2000, and 29% in 2020, for old plantations.

Kernel zed Target Feature Projection-based Implicit Indexive Bootstrap Aggregating Classifier for Marine Weather Forecasting with Big Data

Kernel zed Target Feature Projection-based Implicit Indexive Bootstrap Aggregating Classifier for Marine Weather Forecasting with Big Data

Sea Spray Impacts on Tropical Cyclone Olwyn Using a Coupled Atmosphere‐Ocean‐Wave Model

AbstractExtreme marine weather enhances the production of sea spray droplets which, in turn, affect the air‐sea fluxes. Despite the ability of sea spray to modulate air‐sea interaction processes, it remains under‐represented in tropical cyclone (TC) forecasting modeling. In this study, impacts of sea spray on the atmospheric and oceanic environments of TC Olwyn are investigated. This is achieved by high‐resolution nested simulations using an air‐sea‐wave model coupled with a sea spray production model. We compared two different sea spray models: a wave‐Reynolds‐number‐dependent model, and a wave‐steepness‐dependent spray model. By including a sea spray model, the root mean square error in the simulated TC Olwyn 10 m wind and significant wave height are significantly reduced by up to 30% and 26%, respectively, in comparison to the baseline simulation without spray. This improvement is because sea spray decreases air‐sea heat fluxes at larger radii of TC, and decreases air‐sea heat fluxes at smaller radii of TC. In contrast to the simulated results without sea spray, sea spray increases the air‐sea heat (sensible + latent) energy transfer and intensifies TC Olwyn. Sea spray also triggers stronger upper‐ocean mixing and strengthens the TC‐induced sea surface temperature cooling. Our results thus imply that sea spray critically impacts the atmosphere and ocean conditions during extreme marine weather and thus needs to be considered explicitly in TC forecasting modeling.

On the Value of Early Marine Weather Observations: The Malaspina Expedition (1789–94)

Abstract Great advances in meteorological science were made in the late eighteenth century. In particular, meteorological instruments were carried on ships and the first systematic meteorological readings over the oceans were made. One of these collections of instrumental meteorological readings was carried out by the Malaspina expedition (1789–94), organized by the Spanish Crown to study its vast possessions around the world. We have recovered meteorological variables such as air temperature (maximum and minimum), atmospheric pressure (maximum and minimum), wind (intensity and direction), and appearance (state of the sky) from the documentation generated by the explorers during the journey. In total, nearly 13,000 instrumental data have been digitized and rescued from this maritime expedition. The comparison of daily temperature and pressure observations with reanalysis and weather stations data shows a good overall agreement. Moreover, apparent discrepancies during several anchored periods have allowed for testing the consistency and quality of these early instrumental marine weather readings.