Eddy ForecastTM
Our alliance with Accurate Environmental Forecasting, Inc. (AEF) offers Eddy Watch clients an eddy forecasting capability using the most sophisticated and reliable dynamical model available – Eddy Forecast. We studied existing models in search of a method to produce accurate site-specific forecasts with a resolution sufficient to meet the needs of the offshore operator. The AEF model is the only model to be initialized by the same data used in the daily Eddy Watch analysis from our Far Horizon Drifters.
The Eddy Forecast system consists of two components - an initialization component and a prediction component. The initialization component features a revolutionary technology that efficiently unites all real-time observational data used in Eddy Watch to formulate a nowcast or reconstruction of the existing ocean state. Historical knowledge of the current structure in the Loop Current and eddies and fundamental physical principles fill in any gaps in observations. The nowcast created by the initialization component is fed into the prediction component. The prediction component is a computer model that calculates the evolution in time of the initial fields by numerically solving the system of partial differential equations describing the ocean dynamics. Eddy Watch subscribers receive site-specific forecasts of current speed and direction at several depths as an eddy approaches their site.
