Ventusky: an interactive global weather map

Ventusky, an interactive global weather map developed in the Czech Republic, announced the introduction of a unique wave visualization system.

With the help of animated arcs, the online map shows the movement of waves in the oceans and seas across the world and clearly depicts how waves propagate across the water's surface in relation to the wind.

The visualization also exposes hazards that arise in specific areas, for example, in places where the wind blows in a direction opposite to the direction of the waves.

Creating wave simulations is extremely complex due to the way waves propagate in the ocean.

The wind affects the height of the waves not only in a specific location but also in areas located at considerable distances that may be completely windless.

The visualization itself, therefore, takes into account not only the direction of wave propagation but also its height.

The Interactive Weather Map

The application displays two types of waves:

  1. Waves traveling outside of their place of origin and not caused by local winds - swells;
  2. Waves formed by winds in that particular location - wind waves;

The height of the wave is the combination of the height of the swells and the height of the wind wave.

In the interactive weather map, wind waves are marked in white, and swells are marked in black.

This feature allows you to quickly find areas where high wind waves are traveling in a different direction from the swells.

This is a very dangerous situation for boat transportation because it is very difficult for sailors to control their crafts under such circumstances.

Another highly dangerous situation arises when the wind is blowing against the direction of the waves, making them much steeper. The application can also display the period of the swells and wind waves.

Data for this application is supplied by the highly accurate Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) model, with a resolution of approximately 13 kilometers.

"Ventusky is the first online application to make data from this model accessible to the general public," explains David Prantl, founder of InMeteo, the company behind Ventusky.

"Our goal is to offer highly precise data on waves in the oceans not only to sailors but also to surfers and swimmers, and thus increase overall safety."

Visit ventusky.com for detailed wind and wave forecasts.

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