Initiative Launched to Equip 10,000 Vessels for Weather Monitoring

Weather data sources at sea: blue dots are reporting vessels, yellow dots are buoys (ECMWF)

A new initiative was launched last week, aimed at improving weather forecasting and ocean monitoring. The initiative - dubbed 10,000 Ships for the Ocean - aims to increase the number of vessels equipped for ocean and weather monitoring.

Although the ocean covers over 70% of the Earth, vast areas remain under-observed. Limited coverage means that there are critical knowledge gaps in some weather systems. The goal is to increase the current fleet of 2,000 ships to 10,000 commercial vessels providing real-time weather and surface ocean data. This will help to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, early warning systems and climate monitoring.

The initiative is led by partners including the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The Norwegian car carrier Höegh Autoliners is one of the shipping companies that have pledged support for the initiative. The company said that it would commit its fleet to the project as a contribution to expand ocean data, benefitting both society at large and maritime operations.

“This initiative will go some way to address the gap in weather measurements over the ocean. To give a context, we currently use 15 times less data from ships over the sea than from meteorological stations over land to predict weather worldwide. The more the data points we get, the more accurate our forecast will be,” said Florence Rabier, the Director General of ECMWF.

For centuries, ships at sea have been instrumental in monitoring the ocean and the atmosphere, contributing to science and marine safety. The initiative to scale ship-based observing infrastructure is part of a global reforms effort targeted at upgrading ocean monitoring.

The initiative complements an ongoing push to reform the Argo program, which is a critical pillar of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) administered by the UN and the International Science Council (ISC). Launched in the early 2000s, the international Argo program provides real-time data on the temperature and salinity of the ocean up to 2,000 meters. This is made possible through a global network of 4,000 autonomous floats deployed across all oceans.

But as the ocean is undergoing changes, there is consensus in the scientific community for the Argo program to evolve. The goal is to expand the observational capabilities of the program by 2030, enabling comprehensive monitoring of the global ocean from the surface to the seabed. In addition, the program will broaden the range of physical and chemical parameters it monitors.

In the new phase of the Argo program, 1,200 new floats will be deployed to monitor the deep ocean down to 6,000 meters.