Wind and waves

Our nearby ocean areas are known for powerful storms and extreme weather conditions. Knowledge of wind and wave conditions is therefore very important for safety at sea.

Wind and waves can pose a great danger to human activity linked to the sea. Reducing the risk is of great importance to marine actors. We analyse events with extreme winds over the sea and use, among other things, data from satellites, and calculation models with high resolution. With the help of better observations and more accurate calculations, we can strengthen many professional fields. Planning and optimisation of energy production in new offshore wind farms will benefit from such analyses. Information on the frequency and probability of extreme wind situations is also of interest to the insurance sector. And by calculating how wind and wave conditions will develop, we can contribute to better management of our fisheries resources. The calculations we make are part of the EU’s Earth observation program Copernicus, and have a number of users and application areas.

For more information, contact research leader Antonio Bonaduce.

News

Products and services

Data products from satellitesWe develop advanced methods and tools that extract new information from satellite observations, and which compile and visualize the results. The products can provide information on ocean currents, sea surface temperature and sea level, as well as the amount and type of sea ice.
Data products from rigs and buoysThe conditions in the sea and sea ice affect the development of climate and environmental conditions. Observations of the conditions in the sea and sea ice can be obtained via measuring instruments on board boats, mounted on rigs in the sea, and on surface buoys that drift freely in the ice or in the sea.
Ocean modelsAt the Nansen Center, we are developing the data assimilation system TOPAZ which is based on the ocean model HYCOM, the ecosystem model ECOSMO, the sea-ice model CICE, and our own developed data assimilation method Ensamble Kalman Filter.

Projects

Client: Norges forskningsråd
Project owner: NORCE
Project leader at the Nansen Center: François Counillon
Client: Research Council of Norway
Project owner: NORCE
Project leader at the Nansen Center: François Counillon
Client: Norges forskningsråd
Project owner: Nansensenteret
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Lasse H. Pettersson
Client: Research Council of Norway
Project owner: Nansen Center
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Lasse H. Pettersson
Client: Norges forskningsråd
Project owner: Universitetet i Bergen
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Lingling Suo
Client: Research Council of Norway
Project owner: University of Bergen
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Lingling Suo
Client: Kunnskapsdepartementet via Bjerknessenteret
Project owner: Nansensenteret
Project leader at the Nansen Center: François Counillon
Client: Ministry of Education and Research via the Bjerknes Centre
Project owner: Nansen Center
Project leader at the Nansen Center: François Counillon
Client: Norges forskningsråd
Project owner: Nansensenteret
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Yiguo Wang
Client: Research Council of Norway
Project owner: Nansen Center
Project leader at the Nansen Center: Yiguo Wang