Marine weather

Wind, waves, currents, precipitation, ice and tides

Kristin Omholt-Jensen avatar
Written by Kristin Omholt-Jensen
Updated over a week ago

We update the weather daily and we are using the weather forecast from NOAA and other publicly national available data sources. At the moment weather layers are available only on the web version.
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How to use marine weather layers

If you use ShipAtlas on your computer, Weather layers may be found at the top of the map:

Here you can access different marine weather forecast options:

  • Wind

  • Waves

  • Ocean currents

  • Precipitation

Note, that you can select one weather layer at a time, and you can't add weather layers when you are in satellite mode.

For wind, waves, and perceptions, you can also access a weather forecast showing what will the weather be like seven days ahead and two days behind. We update weather data every 24 hours.


Select the type of weather layer you want to check, then use the slider to study the weather forecast.

You will still be able to hover over the vessels on the map.

The wind is measured in Beaufort

The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land.

The wind direction is shown as particles.

We selected colors according to the Beaufort scale. Beaufort 1 is up to 2,92 knots or 1,5 ms/sec and Beaufort 11 is between 41,99 - 49 knots (or 21,6 - 25,21 ms/sec):


The waves are measured in Sea state

Usually, waves are divided into five types:

  • Wind waves and swell

  • Wind surges

  • Sea waves of seismic origin

  • Standing waves or seiches

  • Gravity waves

Wavelength can be divided into Short wave (- 100 m), Average wave (100–200 m), and Longwave (201 m +).

In our marine weather map, we do not distinguish the difference between types of waves, but we visualize the wind waves. We are using the colors from the Douglas scale / Sea state scale. BLUE is Sea state 1, where the waves are between 0 - 0.1 mtrs. RED color is Sea state 8, where the waves are between 9.0 mtrs - 14 mtrs.

The ocean currents

Winds, water density, and tides "create" ocean currents. Earth's rotation causes ocean currents in the Northern Hemisphere to veer to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left.

We measure Ocean currents in mtrs / sec. The scientific way of measuring waves are; sverdrup (sv), where 1 sv is equivalent to a volume flow rate of 1,000,000 m3 (35,000,000 cu ft) per second.

The Precipitation is measured in mm

We measure precipitation in mm/day. In this marine map, we do not separate different types of precipitation.

You can see the following colors on the map. Light blue defines the precipitation rate to be up to 8,64 mm /last 24 hours, while the darkest red defines the precipitation rate to be above 304,13 mm/last 24 hours.

Ice

You find the daily updated ice condition under "styles and layers".

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