U.S. Volunteer Observing Ship Program

Presentation at NDBC Stennis Space Center, MSAugust 26, 2014

Anchorage Alaska PMOLarry Hubble

Alaska Has over 33,000 miles of Marine CoastlineAbout 5,000 Large Ships Transit Per Year in Alaska Waters – Great Circle Rt.

NWS Alaska Strives to get Observations from Vessels of All Sizes

Alaska Staff Make On Board Visits at 12 Different Alaska Ports

Alaska Received Observations from 600 Different Ships so far in 2014

Alaska Currently Has 433 Active VOS Ships

119,000 Alaska Ship Obs Received for 2013 - 98,000 JAN-JUL 2014UK MET 2013 USA QC Rankings – Alaska Supported Ships – In Top 11 Spots

WSO Kodiak AlaskaPMO Rich Courtney

Valued friend and forecaster for the marine community for the last 15 Years.

Pioneer of email ship observations and the Alaska Ship OB automation concept.

Kodiak 5 Person Staff Collects and Encodes Ship Observations

Most Observations Received via SAT Phone & HF Radio

Kodiak Averages About 3,000 Transmitted Observations Per Year

Kodiak Averages About 5,000 Marine Briefings Per Year

Alaska Website for Encoding Ship Observations

WFO Juneau Alaska12 staff members involved with briefing & Shipob Collection in 2014

16 On Board Visits to Cruise Ships, Ferries, Tugs so far in 2014

Geri Swanson Ursula Jones

Email Observations Processed in Alaska at: webship@noaa.gov

350,000 in 2013

367,000 projected for 2014

Most Observations are Auto Forwarded to Alaska from: shipobs@noaa.gov

Alaska Supported Automated Ships Transmit Directly to: webship@noaa.gov

Alaska Provides a Valuable Backup COMMS Path for Email Ship Observations

Due to all the Bounce Back and Failure Messages with shipobs@noaa.gov – some ships will only use webship@noaa.gov

Some Non USA VOS Ships Use USA Email Addresses

Alaska Hosts the Only USA E-Mail Ship Observation Display WebsiteThis is a Valuable Tool for Data Quality Control

Alaska Supports 15 Automated Hourly Observing Ships & Platforms

These are Primarily Research Vessels Which Do Not Use NOAA SCS

An hourly email data message is sent to Alaska at: webship@noaa.gov

Alaska software coverts data to BBXX format & transmits to NWSTG

Alaska Uses Live AIS Maps to Assist with Observation Collection

Alaska has 3 Offices that Transmit Ice Observations

Thank You Very Much for Listening!