Delegates with a shared interest in the measurement and forecasting of waves participated in an informative afternoon. The scene was set by a series of presentations to explain the advances in sea-state measurement, data processing and portrayal achieved by the Technology Strategy Board funded WaveSentry research project.

Having demonstrated the viability of the WaveSentry system the aim now is to build upon the project’s achievements towards a commercial service. Such a service will offer improved sea state forecasting and nowcasting through the application of real-time sea-state modelling based upon the outputs of large and diverse datasets. Information is likely to be made available to subscribers through a variety of methods; forecasts will be targeted on a site-by-site basis to provide improved and targeted sea state forecasts for specific areas or routes, according to the clients’ end requirements.

The developed application will provide a context for advances in decision support applications in the broad fields of shipping management including marine renewable energy installation/servicing, shipping, search and rescue operations, cable/pipe laying, marine operations coordination, oil and gas activities, fisheries, coastal management, flood management and coastal leisure activities.

The fully operational system will provide data product outputs based around a set of sea-state parameters and will present this information according to the needs of the end-user community. Throughout the project wide-ranging end user groups have been consulted to ensure the output is one of value and worth to potential customers. Furthermore, this work helped address developments in visualisation, user interaction and the characterisation and handling of error.

To learn more about WaveSentry please contact: Simon Powell, Marine South East Ltd: sp@mseuk.org