Marine Forecasts
Updated at 4:27 pm Sat 14 Dec
MSS supports the Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Scheme.
Its designated Port Meteorological Officers service ships under the scheme who call at the Singapore ports, by helping ensure the calibration of instruments, and providing advice on observing practices.
For more information on the scheme, please refer to https://www.ocean-ops.org/sot/vos/.
From the “VOS homepage”:
“The VOS Scheme is an international program comprising member countries of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that recruit ships to take, record and transmit weather observations whilst at sea. Since 1999, the marine activities of WMO, as well as those of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, have been coordinated by the Observation Coordination Group (OCG) for the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The VOS Scheme is a core observing program of the Ship Observations Team (SOT) of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).”
Under the VOS scheme, ships take meteorological measurements on a six hourly basis, generally at the synoptic hours of 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800 UTC. The observation reports are coded and transmitted, usually using the ship’s Inmarsat C system or email. The VOS observations are assimilated into Numerical Weather Prediction and ocean forecast models, and are archived in climatological databases. The observations are also exchanged internationally via the WMO Information System, and support preparation of forecasts and warnings, monitoring the state of the ocean and climate research.