In the largest project of its kind, shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk has installed automated weather stations (AWS) on 50 of its vessels to transmit live data helping forecast weather and climate.
Maersk collaborated with the National Meteorological Service of Germany, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) to install the stations on its vessels.
The parties have worked together on the project since 2019 with the German service providing the 50 systems being installed on the vessels.
In turn, all collected data is transmitted live to DWD, supporting its weather forecasts and climate science.
AWS on ships is said to provide a constant feed of high-quality data at sea and serve as the backbone for all numerical weather models.
By implementing the system, the vessels can deliver precise high-quality and standardized data in real-time giving DWD useful insights about the current meteorological situation at sea.
Furthermore, the data provided is shared globally with all members of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
“We have an ambitious strategy for our business to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2040, and we are proud to have our vessels and crews help researchers in gaining a better understanding of this key global challenge and the impact it has on our surroundings”, said Aslak Ross, head of Marine Standards at Maersk.
As part of its contribution to climate science, the company is also operating within the global Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Scheme under the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) providing regular weather observations, but it has been done manually resulting in a slow process of data sharing.
Maersk added that its approximately 300 fully owned vessels are gathering and sharing their weather and sea-state observations with the VOS.
Recently, Maersk also announced that it releases all historical and future ocean weather observations into the public domain for free use by the scientific community around the globe.
