AWT Weather Routing/Routeing: Applied Weather Technology

Ship Routing – Earliest Arrival

Optimum Route

Our most experienced staff of weather routing experts will recommend the optimum route taking into account analysis of all variables, including the weather, currents, vessel type, age, stability, cargo, speed, etc. AWT uses its proprietary application, AWT Route Optimization System—the most sophisticated weather routing tool available today.

Safety and Efficiency

The combination of the most experienced ship routing staff and most sophisticated tools ensures the highest probability of a safe and efficient voyage. AWT has developed a ship routing system using artificial intelligence with an extensive alarm system which continuously monitors the vessels and alerts Route Analysts when action is needed. The alerts are prioritized so the analyst can quickly address those vessels with potential problems. These alarms cover all facets of the voyage from administrative details, data quality, vessel and voyage to performance and safety. Examples are:

• Potential of encountering freak waves, tropical cyclones and explosive deepening storms
• Probability of putting sensitive cargo at risk

AWT is the only shore-based ship routing company to use vessel and voyage specific severe motion alerts based on the vessel size, draft, stability, speed, heading and wave conditions. These alerts provide both strategic and tactical guidance to our experienced Route Analysts when evaluating a vessel’s route. The alerts show where severe motions are most likely to occur at a specific time along the route, and give an indication on which headings and/or speeds could be used to avoid these areas thereby minimizing the potential of heavy weather damage. These types of alarms allow AWT to find the fastest route while keeping the crew, vessel and cargo safe.

Experienced, Full-service Ship-routing Support

Our offices are staffed with experts in forecasting, forensic meteorology, oceanography, computer science and voyage planning. Because ships are on the job 24 hours a day, every day during a voyage, AWT provides ship operators and Masters 24-hour support year round. The services provided by AWT include interactions with shipping company offices, initial routing messages for shipmasters, continuous monitoring of the vessel’s progress and issuance of voyage performance reports. AWT has extensive experience and data to help plan your voyage ahead of time and to support the speed and consumption claims for routed and un-routed voyages.

AWT Utilizes Numerous Sources of Environmental Information:

• State-of-the-art oceanic and atmospheric modeling
• Sophisticated and precise remote sensing instrumentation on-board various earth-orbiting satellites
• Direct surface-based environmental observations
• Naval Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) currents

Combining Meteorology with Actual Ship Response

Ship routing demands an understanding of the complex relationship between the science of meteorology and the science of naval architecture ship-response algorithms. Voyage analysis that defines the exact relationship between the actual weather encountered and its true effect on speed of advance of any specific vessel requires considerable skill and experience. Industry-renowned scientists in this specialized science head the AWT voyage analysis group.