Simulation of Weather and Ocean for Numerical Ship Navigation

For safe navigation, high-resolution information on wind and waves is very important. In coastal areas in particular, the weather and ocean situation changes dramatically in time and place according to the effects of geography and water depth. In this paper, high resolution wave data are generated using SWAN [1][2] as a numerical wave model. To estimate waves, wind data is necessary. By using the mesoscale meteorological model of WRF-ARW, detailed wind data was generated. We simulated wind and ocean waves for the duration of a typhoon passing over Japan in September of 2004. Secondly, we simulated ship maneuvering using simulated wind and wave data. For the ship maneuvering model, the MMG (Mathematic Modeling Group) was used. Combining high-resolution wind and wave data with the numerical navigation model, we studied the effects of wind and waves on a ship’s maneuvering. Comparing the simulated rhumb lines of a ship with the dead reckoning tracks, it was recognized that the effects of the wind and waves on a moving ship were significant.