Associate Professor Shane Keating’s navigation tool, dubbed a ‘Google Maps for the sea’, enables crew to plot their routes so they take advantage of the power of ocean currents, rather than working against them.
The algorithm utilises data from the SWOT – Surface Water and Ocean Topography – satellite launched in December 2022 that surveys data from almost the entirety of Earth’s water sources.
“Associate Professor Keating is an expert in a type of ocean current called eddies, swirling circular currents that are the oceanic equivalent of atmospheric storms,” said UNSW.
“Eddies are found in every ocean basin and make up 90 per cent of the kinetic energy of the ocean, but they aren’t well represented in existing ocean current forecasts.
“By better incorporating ocean eddies in forecasts, Keating says that commercial ships can harness these currents to find more efficient routes across the ocean.
“Most ships travel the shortest distance between two points on the Earth’s surface. It’s known as a great circle route.
“But that route, although it’s the shortest distance, is not the most fuel-efficient route because ocean currents are constantly moving the ship off that perfect geometrical line. The ship has to use its engines and therefore burn more fuel to stay on the line.
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“By going with ocean currents, ships will travel slightly longer distances over the surface of the Earth, but they’ll travel more efficiently because they’re moving with ocean currents rather than against them.
“You can do this in real time if you know where those ocean currents are.”
Space Connect previously reported how SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency CNES and aims to create the first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water.
The spacecraft measures how water bodies on Earth change over time, aiming to survey 90 per cent of the Earth at least once every 21 days.
The key metrics being measured by SWOT include the water volume and flow rate of these bodies of water, as well as information about how the ocean is absorbing atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide.
“In the past few decades, satellite technology has completely revolutionised the way we look at the ocean,” said Associate Professor Keating.
“Before the satellite era, our picture of the ocean was of a giant bathtub of seawater with just a few large ocean currents – like the Gulf Stream and the East Australian Current.
“Thanks to satellites, we now know that the ocean is highly turbulent and chaotic, like our atmosphere, and is filled with thousands of ocean eddies that can range in diameter from 10 to 300 kilometres and depths of up to 2000 metres.”
Professor Keating is a member of the international science team for the SWOT satellite and leads the Australian SWOT working group (AUSWOT), a consortium of researchers and stakeholders working to support the SWOT mission in the Asia-Pacific region.
He is now engaging with shipping companies and vessel builders to commercialise the technology.
“It’s a win-win for shipping companies,” said Keating. “They can save money and meet their emissions reductions targets right now, without any modification to the vessel or change in the vessel transit time.
“My hope is that, within the next five years, this research will change the way that ships cross the ocean so that shipping companies can meet their emissions targets.”
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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