NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and Sofar Ocean are working together to improve the modeling and forecasting abilities of the Unified Forecast System (UFS), making it more accurate as it predicts weather, tracks hurricanes, and provides critical assistance during severe weather events.
The EMC, a division of NOAA’s National Weather Service, uses computational modeling to understand and predict the effects of interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and land. To ensure that these models are accurate, they need real-world data to compare with the results. That’s where Sofar, a leading ocean intelligence company, comes in.
Sofar owns and operates the world’s largest private network of real-time ocean sensors, known as Spotters, and collects more than 1.5 million direct observations of waves and weather each day. Sofar is also developing an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-based calibration capability that it uses to fine-tune wave models based on data from the Spotter network and other observational sources.
NOAA has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with Sofar to share technologies, insights, and expertise. Under this CRADA, EMC will use the real-time observational data collected by Sofar’s Spotter network to assess and improve model performance. Specifically, they aim to use these assessments to optimize the WAVEWATCH III model, improving the capabilities and accuracy of wave forecasts by UFS.
“Our partnership with Sofar will improve wave forecasts, such as significant wave height, by leveraging the unique expertise at both Sofar and the Environmental Modeling Center” said Dr. Jessica Meixner, a physical scientist with NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center. “By combining our efforts, we can accelerate the pace of forecast improvement.”
The CRADA will also benefit Sofar’s efforts to produce a next-generation atmosphere-wave-ocean model. This model improves marine weather forecast accuracy by better predicting the interactions between the atmosphere and ocean (air-sea interface). Sofar’s enhanced marine weather forecasts directly benefit science, society, and industry, including maritime shipping companies that use its Wayfinder voyage optimization platform.
“Public-private partnerships are key to advancing our understanding and forecasting of ocean conditions,” said Pieter Smit, Principal Ocean Scientist at Sofar. “This partnership will combine Sofar’s unique ocean observations and real-time forecasts with EMC’s model building expertise. Together, we will work to improve forecasts that ensure safety at sea for coastal communities, mariners, and ocean industry.”
NOAA anticipates that this CRADA will improve the impact of wave model tuning and calibration on the UFS applications, as well as accelerate improvements in the wave models used by the broader scientific community, bringing increased safety and economic benefits to the American public and the shipping industry.
This CRADA with Sofar is one of three CRADAs with Sofar that NOAA has currently. NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab has a CRADA with Sofar to advance marine weather forecasts and NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center is working with Sofar to advance marine observations and environmental monitoring. NOAA regularly partners with private sector companies through CRADAs to conduct research and development work that is mutually beneficial and helps to accomplish NOAA’s mission. NOAA CRADAs are coordinated through NOAA Research’s Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) Technology Partnerships Office.