PredictWind has announced a new weather routing algorithm with completely new code that offers unmatched performance.
Faster routes
The new routing algorithm finds the fastest routes 70-90% of the time, compared to the competition.
Testing the new PredictWind router against the competition, using the same polar ship, the same wind field, and then evaluating the optimal routes through a navigation simulator to actually see which routing algorithm navigated the ship fastest to the destination. The new PredictWind router was a clear winner. The fastest routes are usually the safest.
Routing corridors
The new router displays “routing corridors” along with the optimal route. These corridors show an area where the ship can reach the destination within 0.1% of the fastest time. The route of a boat in the water is a very different situation than a GPS navigation route for cars.
The ship’s route is only as accurate as the weather forecast and the ship’s polarity. Routing corridors show areas where it is imperative to be close to the optimal route and other areas where you can deviate greatly from the optimal route. The overlapping of areas between the six routes based on forecasts from six different sources gives you a high degree of confidence in the route to navigate. This new concept will revolutionize the way you view optimal routes.
Exact weather
Each PredictWind route is calculated using the highest resolution ECMWF / SPIRE / UKMO / GFS / PWG / PWE forecast data.
ECMWF has been shown to be the most accurate global weather model.
High resolution PredictWind models running at 1km / 8km resolution are the highest resolution models available with proven short-term accuracy. Getting 6 forecasts for each route gives you additional confidence in the forecast.
Speed and ease
As the PredictWind router runs in the cloud from the ship, downloading GRIB files is not essential to calculate a route and in some circumstances this will save you at least 50MB of GRIB downloads.
The PredictWind router has access to the highest resolution GRIB data for wind, swell and current. Downloading this data over a mobile or satellite connection is very slow and expensive. With the click of a button, forecast information, including routes for all 6 forecasts, is quickly and easily displayed to help make informed decisions.
Long-term forecasts
ECMWF aggregate forecasts have been added, with an incredible 4-week long-term forecast.
The ECMWF suite is unequivocally the leader in long-range forecasting and enables planning a trip far in advance, with greater precision than traditional weather forecasts.
Trustworthy
The PredictWind router just works. No failed routes or router issues crossing land, so you can focus on navigating the ship, rather than troubleshooting the router not working. See the white paper for the reliability of the new PredictWind router technical report
Detailed list of functions
Weather routing with a highly optimized grid-based algorithm
Fast execution time as 6 routes are calculated in parallel
Consider wind, currents and waves
Uses higher resolution grib data whenever available
Automatically covers everyone
Effective land avoidance
Consider all provided exclusion zones
Provides optimal climatic routes and comfortable routes
Advanced ship polar extrapolation
Allows a course to have both waypoints and rounds
Visualization of the superposition of these corridors to show passages where the set of meteorological forecasts agrees that it is optimal to pass
Numerous data available along the route: wind, currents, waves, speed, distances, angles, times, air pressure, temperature, rain, CAPE index
Continuous interpolation of this data along the path
Presentation of the driving time on the comfort route
Choose the Ocean Current data source
The router finds a route when the start and destination waypoints are on the ground
Wave and ocean data available along the coast
ECMWF routes use 9 km resolution wind data and 14 km wave data
The last 5 routes are saved, so they can be quickly compared for analysis.
