Sofar Ocean is on a quest to extract and put to use data from the world\u2019s waterways. Co-Founder and CEO Tim Janssen discusses how his team\u2019s hyper-focus on data is helping to improve weather routing via Wayfinder.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Tim Janssen and his Sofar Ocean team<\/strong><\/a> continue their \u2018Epic Ocean Data Quest,\u2019 remaining laser focused on doing its part to help extract and put to use increasing quantities of information from the world\u2019s oceans. \u00a0For its part, Sofar continues to build scalable networks to gather information premised on its Sofar Spotter buoy. \u00a0Today, Sofar Ocean has more than 2,500 sensors deployed worldwide, an array that provides more than 200,000 daily updates on ocean weather globally, helping forecasters to improve their forecasts by up to 40%.<\/p>\n While Janssen admits that weather models today do a reasonably good job, the key to making them even better lies in the amount and the quality of information being put in. \u201cI think step one is acknowledging that models are only as good as the data you put into it,\u201d he said. \u201cAssuming that the model can do that reasonably well, the way to make them better foundationally is put more information into them; that\u2019s why we are hyper focused on creating large networks of sensors \u2026 [the oceans are] a very big place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe principle\u2019s very simple, technically it\u2019s described as data assimilation, which basically means we\u2019re taking all the sensor information we can get our hands on \u2026 our own network of thousands of sensors worldwide, satellite data, data from public networks \u2026 and we put all of that information into our models on the \u2018now\u2019 state. We tell the model, \u2018look this is what we know about how the weather is behaving right now, take that, correct whatever you thought was going on, and translate that into what will be happening in the future.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Sofar Ocean has more than 2,500 sensors deployed worldwide, an array that provides more than 200,000 daily updates on ocean weather globally, helping forecasters to improve their forecasts by up to 40%. \u201cWe run our own operational numerical weather forecast models in the cloud, gathering all of this information every six hours, getting everything together, running a forecast cycle, and basically improving the forecast, reducing the uncertainty. From the ground up, the whole system is designed to be a very effective way of reducing uncertainty in forecasts,\u201d said Janssen.\u00a0\u201cHow cool is it that a small team like ours can actually run numerical weather forecasts in the cloud? That\u2019s cloud computing; it wasn\u2019t possible five years ago.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So melding sensors \u2013 sensors low cost enough to allow deployment at scale \u2013 with IoT capabilities plus real-time connectivity to drive that information to the models creates a dynamic and powerful value proposition.<\/p>\n Wayfinder<\/strong><\/p>\n Wayfinder is a dynamic voyage guidance system, designed to deliver the most efficient and least weather-restricted speed and waypoint recommendations to a fleet. Powered by Sofar Ocean\u2019s global network of ocean sensors, helping to produce accurate marine weather forecasts and inform detailed Vessel Performance Models (VPM).<\/p>\n \u201cWe built this platform for maritime shipping that\u2019s going to help reduce emissions. It\u2019s going to be tying into new CII regulations, and it\u2019s going to help the industry accelerate its journey towards a more carbon-free future,\u201d said Janssen.<\/p>\n Core to Wayfinder\u2019s capability is the real knowledge of what weather is happening and is forecast to happen at certain spots in the ocean. He sees the vessel voyage optimization conundrum as stretching far above and beyond simply knowing the weather, as the factors that go into the decision-making process are complex and dynamic, including the weather, vessel specific performance criteria and market variables too, such as the cost for arriving early or arriving late. By incorporating a vessel\u2019s specific business and safety constraints, Wayfinder continuously provides operators and crew with the most optimized speed and routes possible.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is change the paradigm altogether,\u201d said Janssen. \u201cEvery six hours is an opportunity for change. Market variables are volatile, fuel prices go up and down daily, weather changes every three hours. To \u2018set it and forget it\u2019 would be a very bad idea if you\u2019re thinking about a transoceanic voyage that could be 30 to 40 days.\u201d<\/p>\n Every six hours, Sofar Ocean runs through its optimizations based on the latest, comprehensive weather data integration, helping to deliver the next strategy. While getting the best data, processing and delivering strategy is the hard part, Janssen said \u201cwe solved that problem.\u201d The next challenge is engaging will all partners to both implement, execute and track the strategy to receive tangible results.<\/p>\n \u201cWayfinder is hyper focused on delivering the best routes and optimization of both waypoint selection and speed. It is optimized to make sure that everybody\u2019s looking at the same information, it is on board and onshore, and basically making sure that there is seamless interaction on the same information and that adherence of the best strategy is maximized,\u201d said Janssen. maritime professional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sofar Ocean is on a quest to extract and put to use data from the world\u2019s waterways. Co-Founder and CEO Tim Janssen discusses how his team\u2019s hyper-focus on data is helping to improve weather routing via Wayfinder. Tim Janssen and his Sofar Ocean team continue their \u2018Epic Ocean Data Quest,\u2019 remaining laser focused on doing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/33267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Tim Janssen, CEO & Co-Founder, Sofar Ocean, holding one of his ubiquitous Spotter Buoys<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n
While he admits that Sofar Ocean may be late to the game \u2013 considering the amount of time, money and effort shipowners have already poured into optimization; from hull design to weather routing, to propulsion technologies and appendages, to coatings \u2013 Janssen believes the holy grail of true optimization is still a ways off for many companies. \u201cI think a lot of ship owners have already invested quite big into technologies to improve their vessels without really knowing what it\u2019s going to do for the performance,\u201d said Janssen.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/imagesedit.marinelink.com\/images\/storage\/w735h800\/mtrwayfinderdiagramcopy.jpg\"\/)
Wayfinder is a dynamic voyage guidance system, powered by Sofar Ocean\u2019s global network of ocean sensors, helping to produce accurate marine weather forecasts and inform detailed Vessel Performance Models (VPM). \u00a0
Images Courtesy Sofar Ocean<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n