Marine weather visualisation on display at APPEA 2016

Marine weather visualisation on display at APPEA 2016

MetraWeather and science partner MetOcean Solutions will present on Stand 51 at APPEA 2016 a marine weather visualisation created exclusively for a major oil and gas company.

The visualisation, encompassing fields offshore Malaysia, was created in the MetraWeather Weatherscape XT graphics platform. The content provides graphical insights into the prevailing and forecast marine environment and would usually play out on screens and dashboards in regional headquarters and operations control rooms.

Weather has been a factor in 7 of the world’s 10 worst offshore disasters. In December 2015, 32 lives were sadly lost in the Caspian Sea after a severe weather event struck an offshore platform.

In Australia and South East Asia, typhoons (tropical cyclones) and tropical squalls present not only marine engineering challenges for offshore operators but rank amongst the more significant threats to health and safety offshore.

The marine weather visualisations on display at APPEA interpret highly accurate, science-based data and high-resolution views from the Himawari 8 satellite to picture the wind, rain and ocean swell forecasts; site-specific wave heights and wind speeds; and a 5-day severe weather warning matrix.

The visualisation also shows the track of Tropical Cyclone Roanu which swept across Sri Lanka, up the east coast of India and into the Bay of Bengal before making landfall in Bangladesh in late-May 2016.

In Bangladesh some 500,000 people were evacuated into 3500 shelters. Aviation authorities suspended flight operations at Chittagong’s Shah Amanat International Airport and the Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued warnings for four seaports. The main port of Chittagong ordered 19 ships to immediately leave the port and anchor in the outer anchorage.

Offshore oil & gas operations in the Bay of Bengal reportedly escaped unharmed with no major infrastructure damage or longer-term disruptions, but it was a timely reminder of the potential of tropical cyclonic events to build quickly and threaten health and safety thresholds and disrupt operations both offshore and onshore.

ENDS

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