A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk) announces that it releases all historical and future ocean weather observations into the public domain for free use by the scientific community around the globe. The data which has been collected by Maersk vessels since 2012 increases publicly available ocean weather data by 28 percent, according to the company's release.
The goal is to aid climate research and weather forecasts by providing weather data from the world’s oceans, where ground level data coverage is slim, and most data comes from satellite observations which have their limitations.
Among other things, the observations can give a more precise picture of how surface-level ocean conditions and the interaction with the atmosphere has evolved since 2012.
The data – more than 9 million observations – will be shared via the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), run jointly by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). GOOS collects ocean weather observations for climate science and provides input to weather forecasts.
With all 300 Maersk-owned vessels sharing data multiple times a day, Maersk shares more than 7,000 observations every day. Some vessels are even live feeding data to weather services around the globe. In collaboration with the National Meteorological Service of Germany, Maersk has installed Automated Weather Stations on several of its vessels. These are calibrated research-grade measurement stations which collect a greater variety of data points at a higher quality, even further improving the contribution to weather forecasting and climate science.