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Ocean Observation: Gliders, Buoys & Sub-Surface Networks
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INTERVIEW Tim Janssen, CEO, Sofar Ocean Technologies
MARINE
TECHNOLOGY
TV
Watch the interview @ bit.ly/3rl6a2f
Inside Sofar Ocean Technologies
Epic Quest to Open
Ocean Data
Tim Janssen, CEO, Sofar Ocean
Technologies, discusses this real-time ocean intelligence platform’s quest to collect, network and distribute vast amounts of ocean information and insight, essentially creating the ‘nervous system for the oceans.’
By Greg Trauthwein
Tim, to start, please give us a by the numbers look at We talk about getting information from the ocean your company? and turning it into actionable data on a daily basis.
We are a startup, with 50 people in our San Francisco of- What is unique about the Sofar approach?
? ce, and 50 on the water. We have more than 1,200 live sen- “Ocean intelligence” is new, and as a result, it has to be in- sors right now, one of the largest networks ever created for herently full stack. Data in itself is relevant for experts, but ocean sensing. We have more than 5 million ocean hours on that data in itself is not that relevant for the everyday user. You our platform and we collect more than 100,000 data points need to be an expert to understand how that (data) changes daily. What that data does is it allows us to improve weather forecasts. We create the insights from our sensors, and our forecast over the oceans, and particularly for instance, our sensor network is basically the central nervous system of our wave forecast; we can get 30 to 50% improvements for every oceans. What we do is drive (data) into forecast models to operational cycle. Also, we deliver insights for shipping, route translate it into better (weather and forecast) insights, (helping optimization. We’re trying to use sensor information to create to) reduce the uncertainty around, for example, what waves insights that were previously not available. and winds are going to be doing over the ocean. Speci? cally 46 November/December 2021
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