Gulf Stream & Weather

Frank Bohlen has developed a list of online resources for captains and crew interested in studying the Gulf Stream and weather.  Background on Frank Bohlen's weather & Gulf Stream information

Gulf Stream Tutorials
Several year's worth of analysis of the Gulf Stream from the racer's perspective. Updated June 9, 2006.

National Weather Service
The National Weather Service site with an abundance of products including marine forecasts and satellite imagery. A valuable resource for the study of weather. Look particularly at the NWS Ocean Prediction Center sites. Check out the film loops at this site. The place to start !

Northwest Atlantic Weather Briefing (NOAA)
Here’s a handy listing of most of the weather fax charts of interest for the northwest Atlantic. When compressed, an efficient way to download a lot of information in a hurry.

Marine Observing Systems Team
This site provides a map showing ocean surface winds derived using satellite radar data. These data nicely complement the surface weather maps available on the Ocean Prediction Center site (see above) and allow study of the relationships between predicted surface pressure gradients and the actual wind speeds and directions. These data can be of particular value in the areas influenced by major ocean currents or marked changes in sea surface water temperature.

NOAA/National Weather Service Environmental Modeling Center
NOAA's Marine Modelling and Analysis Branch's site providing a variety of products resulting from the numerical modeling of meteorological and oceanographic systems. These include nowcast and forecast ocean winds and waves every three hours out to 72 hours and modelled surface temperatures and currents for the Gulf Stream region. A very interesting site. Compare these results with some of the satellite observed sea surface temperatures available at the several of the sites below.

Naval Research Laboratory Global Ocean Analysis and Modeling
Ths site provides a listing of the results of U.S. Navy modeling of the Gulf Stream region. Several routing programs use these results. It’s interesting to compare these to the NOAA model results available at the previous site and to compare both to actual data such as the satellite observations.

Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Lab
A site maintained by Rutgers University which includes a variety of data specific to the Gulf Stream. Drift buoy data and satellite imagery are of particular interest. Comparisons between these data and the thermal images available from the Naval Oceanographic Office is often interesting and instructive. Also see the coastal current data provided by CODAR . These latter data will be of value to those transiting the Jersey shoreline. Similar data are available at LISICOS.uconn.edu for the area off Montauk Point.

www.weatherimages.org
The color composite of the Naval Oceanographic Office thermal image of the Gulf Stream can be obtained at this site as well as a variety of other hydrographic and meteorological data. The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) plots are normally updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week.

Naval Meteorology & Oceanography Center
The primary site for the U.S. Navy oceanographic data including Gulf Stream thermal data. viewed at the preceding two sites.

Johns Hopkins Ocean Remote Sensing
A site maintained by Johns Hopkins University providing links to a variety of satellite imagery and altimetry data. The combination is sometimes able to provide a unique indication of the presence of a Gulf Stream warm or cold core ring. An additional means to analyze Gulf Stream features if carefully applied.

Delft University of Technology
A site at which the results of selective analyses of satellite altimetry data for the Gulf Stream region are used to estimate near surface velocities. Some times interesting and/or instructive if used in combination with visual and thermal data. Care in application is a must!

Near Real Time Altimeter - NOAA/AOML
Here is another site providing modeled currents based on satellite altimeter data.  As in the case of the Delft data, application requires care.  In this case several model results are presented requiring study to assess navigational utility.  Comparison with surface thermal data (e.g. Rutgers above) is recommended.

Bermuda Weather
Bermuda Weather’s site. Provides continuing weather analyses and forecasts for the immediate vicinity of the island. Its often interesting to compare these observations to conditions indicated by the larger area weather maps such as the NWS weatherfax charts of the northwest Atlantic. Also, see Yacht Charts under Marine Forecast as well as tidal data for Bermuda.

Bermuda Harbor Radio
A useful compendium of information dealing with sailing to Bermuda, communications, and safety with links to a variety of auxiliary sites. Helpful in numerous ways.

cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/servers.html
One of the University of Michigan’s weather sites (see UMICH.edu). Although this borders on sensory overload there is so much useful at this site that it qualifies as a must visit. See in particular the presentation of model outputs for each the numerical models routinely used by all forecasters. A study of the differences in model output instructive.

NOAA Satellite and Information Service
Easy access to weather satellite data for the east coast of the U.S. out to Bermuda. Represents a useful adjunct to the weather maps provided by the Ocean Prediction Center as well as the QuikScat data described above (see. Manati)