Modernizing Marine Navigation using S-111 Surface Current Forecast Guidance Derived from NOS Operational Oceanographic Forecast Systems

Abstract:

NOAA’s Precision Navigation program supports safety and efficiency for vessels navigating in close proximity to the seafloor, bridges, narrow channels, or other marine hazards by delivering dynamic near-real-time information to mariners when they need it most. Using the National Ocean Service’s (NOS) Operational Forecast Systems (OFS) and the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) S-100 data standards, this program provides a reliable surface current product (S-111) for use in shipboard navigation systems to improve decision support. With surface current forecast guidance integrated into navigation systems, mariners can make effective, accurate, safe, and timely navigation decisions and improve route optimization, harbor maneuvering, and voyage planning.

NOS’s OFS consist of 3D hydrodynamic forecast modeling systems generating gridded nowcasts and forecast guidance of water current vectors, free surface water level, water temperature, and salinity in critical U.S. ports, harbors, estuaries, and the Great Lakes. The OFS native model output supports a broad number of use-cases, but for marine navigation, users must perform complex transformations and interpolation to derive surface currents and water level guidance.

In the interest of optimizing OFS products for modernizing marine navigation, the Precision Navigation Program’s dissemination system automatically downloads, processes, and disseminates model output from 13 OFS and the National Weather Service’s Global Real-Time Ocean Forecast System in S-111 HDF5 format. The system is built and deployed using open source software, Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure, and NOS’s suite of open source python packages. It produces a set of S-111 HDF5 files containing surface current speed and direction forecast guidance four times per day along with S-100 exchange set catalogs which facilitate discoverability and automatic ingestion of the S-111 files for testing by commercial manufacturers of Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS), portable pilot units (PPU), and electronic chart systems (ECS). Ongoing development efforts for the Precision Navigation dissemination system will focus on including additional S-100 product lines: S-104 (water levels), S-102 (bathymetry), and S-412 (weather overlay).