Video 4.4 Meteorology and safety

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En provenance du cours de Universitat de Barcelona

Strategies for winning. Meteorology in a round the world regatta

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Universitat de Barcelona

Strategies for winning. Meteorology in a round the world regatta

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In this course you can learn about the mechanics of global weather, the foundations of ocean meteorology, predictive modeling and how sailors receive data via satellite and use high-performance navigation software. This course looks at oceanic meteorology and climatology through the lens of the sport of sailing. You will gain a basic knowledge of meteorology needed by sailors to take part in a regatta such as the Barcelona World Race, the only double-handed, round the world regatta with no stops. You will learn about the strategies employed during a round the world regatta and how these are put to use on board the latest ocean racing yachts.

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Ocean regattas and meteorology

The science of meteorology is a fundamental part of any type of ocean navigation. In the case of yacht racing, it's importance is even greater, given that the wind is the force propelling the boat and is the key factor in formulating the strategy and tactics needed to win. However, the lead role of meteorology in a regatta is for safety, and that is something that the race organisers always make a priority. In Module 4.1 the general climatology for a regatta such as the Barcelona World Race is described, as well as the preparations the skippers make with the sails, the boat and other personal kit. In Module 4.2 you will learn how the Race Management of a regatta work together with the meteorologist to ensure that the information reaches the boats and to guarantee the maximum safety levels for the crews. In Module 4.3 the type of information the crews receive whilst out on the oceans is described, as well as the telecommunications systems used to make this happen. In Module 4.4 you will learn how weather information impacts on safety and you will look at the specific case of ice detection in the Southern Ocean.

Video 4.2 Meteorology and the organisation of a round the world regatta4:09

Video 4.2.1 The meteorologist in a round the world regatta3:26

Video 4.2.2 The Race Directors and weather information2:45

Video 4.3 Onboard information during the Barcelona World Race2:33

Video 4.4 Meteorology and safety11:18

Rencontrer les enseignants

Tomàs Molina

[MUSIC]

For security of course one of important

programs we can meet is of course icebergs.

So for this new edition, we'll use

those to be sure the boats will not go in bad situation,

with Marcel van Triest we decide a restriction zone.

With all the last information we can have with cells information.

They can give us new photo of the stream of the icebergs.

So we decide before the restriction zone,

and that's a really big difference we have with the last because it was only doors.

But what we thought between two doors you can go down to the icebergs so

we prefer to do research [INAUDIBLE] and for the strategy of competitors is

maybe more interesting for them to know exactly what the limit.

At CLS we provide several kinds of information to the rest direction.

The first kind of information is location of boats that is transmitted by

the beacons aboard the boats, something like every hours.

So the race direction has a constant view

the position of all the boats during the race.

And the second kind of information provide to

is information about icebergs and about ocean condition.

And for that point, more specifically we work with Marcel van Triest

and we provide him with the location of the iceberg we detected with our technologies.

And so we are hoping to define the exclusion areas

all along the course of the Barcelona World Race.

We have a meeting regularly with them and as soon we

are aware there's a new iceberg detected we inform Marcel van Triest.

But there is a possibility that some isolated iceberg

remain in the Ocean North of this exclusion area.

So in that case, and if we detect the iceberg with our technology,

we will alert Marcel van Triest on the race direction as soon as possible,

so that this information can be sent to this keepers.

So this will be a process that can go on every day if necessary.

Ice research project is a big project for any round the world race.

There's no information available on the internet.

You can't buy it anywhere.

You actually have to order it and have to custom made.

Barcelona World Race has done it two times and

a third time coming up and it involves quite a bit of organization.

First of all you have to decide where the boats are going to sail more or less.

Then you have to order custom images for

those areas to get data if there's any icebergs there.

No one knows if there's any icebergs until your order images.

Treating all those images and so it's a big job relating them to

whether where the fleet will be when they get there, also don't forget the fleet

will be quite separated from the first boat to the last boat,

if the last boat had some problems, they can be half an ocean.

So you have to make exclusion zones that work for

the whole fleet, you can't make it, a little bit further North for one boat,

a little bit further South for the next boat.

So dealing with that and finding the right compromise between

safety and having a good course around the world, without going through all

the highs in the middle latitudes there is a discussion between the race organizer,

the meteorologist, me and CLS, which are the experts in providing those images and

analyzing those images.

But it's a big job and a big responsibility.

So in the ice project, the way we work, more or less is as follows.

We start off with a simple study.

It's not that simple but

with an instrument on satellite which called the altimeter.

The altimeter measures the distance from the satellite to the sea surface,

if in a sea surface there's some floating object like a ship or

an iceberg, that signal will come back quicker to the satellite and

that data, when it gets beamed back to us on the shore,

we'll be able to distinguish that there are icebergs there,

ships and all that.

So all those floating objects then, that have been defined.

They can be icebergs.

They can be ships.

That gets correlated with the database of all ships that are known to be out there,

and their positions,

a lot of it is known now.

And then some of them will say, okay those are ships.

Some of them, we're not really certain.

A majority will say, those are icebergs.

That work has already started.

We've done it over the last few years.

We'll be starting it again in September.

And we'll keep on updating it.

The only problem is that with that measuring of the altimeter from

the satellite to the Earth's surface, you don't cover everything all the time.

And icebergs drift quite a lot.

I will be providing with logical information to CLS to actually

estimate and calculate this drift.

All right, but it drifts quite a lot.

So it could be that you ping it now here where next time sunlight comes around,

a few hours later, at best.

Right, the iceberg has drifted and you miss it.

So some fall through the maze basically.

So although this gives us a rough indication where the main

concentrations of ice are, after that we go in with a finer

grain instrument which is called a scatterometer.

The scatterometer takes a picture from the satellite.

Well it's not really picture, it actually emits a radar beam.

A radar beam like the ship's radar or

a radar that the police use to give you a fine.

The radar beam from the satellite to the Earth surface.

Those radar waves reflect back from the Earth's surface and

that's get captured by satellites.

And this is why it's called, a scatter emitter because

those radar beams they get scattered by the Earth's surface.

And a wave or

a flat ocean will give a different scatter than an iceberg or a solid object.

So then all that data as you can mention it's an enormous amount of data,

all this scattered data basically.

Gets then put back together basically as an artificial image.

Then they say, that's an iceberg, that's an iceberg, that may be, that may be not.

So we sort of go finer, especially to find...

The main concentrations will get with the altimeter, but there's more on the edges.

Is it still safe there?

Or is there still a few icebergs around.

Then in discussion with the race organizer we'll decide where to put the exclusions up

and then see as we'll keep on monitoring that in case there is any danger.

[COUGH] For some of the competitors that arrive later,

that some iceberg has floated out of that area, out of the exclusion zone.

Especially approaching Cape Horn for instance.

Cape Horn, you have to go South.

There is no option to go through Panama Canal for instance.

You have to go South and you could end up in a situation where it's impossible for

the race organizer to guarantee that there will be no icing by competitor.

You will never be sure because even its scatterometer data it's still

fairly coarse.

It only picks up icebergs which are at least 150 meters wide or

tall, whatever you want to call it.

Right. So even the smaller ice bits,

you don't really pick them up.

So you try to correlate all that between sea surface temperature where

were the icebergs.

Was there a chance that there was a bigger one here that is now falling into small

bits, right.

Of only the size of a car, size of a truck?

And if they are there, how far away do we have to stay?

Where will they go with the ocean's currents?

When do they get into warm water and will melt.

So it's all about finding the right compromise in between safety and

sailing around the world.

So this part of organizing a race is very different now than the old days.

The old days are not that old.

The old days are only 20 to 30 years ago when we started.

Sailing around the world on a regular basis, either fully crewed, single-handed.

The Barcelona World Race arrived later.

20, 30 years ago, there were no instruments.

There were no satellites out there that could actually do something with it.

So boats left more or less in the blind, ignorant.

And then when they came to port they say, we've seen a lot of ice.

There have been some collisions.

There haven't been any major disasters.

But that's been more a matter of luck than anything else.

I mean I remember doing a race starting from

Uruguay to Western Australia, Freemantle.

And if you would take the shortest route,

it would basically take you over the Antarctic continent.

So we spent weeks down there at 60, 61 degrees South in really slow boats.

And saw a lot of ice and thought nothing of it, it was probably normal.

Today, it's all very different,

I mean the boats are a lot quicker, which makes it a lot more dangerous actually.

Because now single handed,

double handed which means you can't have a watcher on deck to look out.

That sort of stuff.

Also that sort of information is available.

You can get the information now you can no longer ignore it.

The whole liability and responsibility.

The game has changed a lot.

When I did my first around the world race it was organized by the English Navy.

And some rare admiral said: Off you go chap!

Jolly good! And that was the end of it.

You arrived, you didn't arrive, no one cared.

And that's no longer possible in 2014.

This change in responsibility and liability for instance,

you can also see back in the Australian Barrier, as we called it.

I mean there is a limit on how far south you can go under Australia,

basically because the Australian search and rescue authorities have said, okay, so

you're sailing around the world, good.

We are responsible for the well-being of your sailors while they're in our waters.

And we can't reach you more than 12,0000 miles from our nearest

and station basically.

When it gets too far away, we can't send ships, we can't spend taxpayer's money.

Basically, to go and rescue some single handed or

double handed sailor 4,000 kilometers from our shores, basically.

So that is another limitation that is in the race now.

In the old days, 20 years ago,

30 years ago those trainers didn't even think about it.

That was just part of it.

And no questions asked.

There were no limits.

Today there are more and more limits as far as.

What is reasonable?

What is safe?

What is acceptable by the public?

What is acceptable by the competitors?

And what is acceptable by the authorities?

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