U.S. Volunteer Observing Ship Program

1. Anchorage Alaska PMOLarry Hubble U.S. Volunteer Observing Ship Program Presentation at NDBC Stennis Space Center, MS August 26, 2014

2. Alaska Has over 33,000 miles of Marine Coastline About 5,000 Large Ships Transit Per Year in Alaska Waters – Great Circle Rt. NWS Alaska Strives to get Observations from Vessels of All Sizes Alaska Staff Make On Board Visits at 12 Different Alaska Ports Alaska Received Observations from 600 Different Ships so far in 2014 Alaska Currently Has 433 Active VOS Ships 119,000 Alaska Ship Obs Received for 2013 - 98,000 JAN-JUL 2014 UK MET 2013 USA QC Rankings – Alaska Supported Ships – In Top 11 Spots

3. WSO Kodiak AlaskaPMO Rich Courtney Valued friend and forecaster for the marine community for the last 15 Years. Pioneer of email ship observations and the Alaska Ship OB automation concept. Kodiak 5 Person Staff Collects and Encodes Ship Observations Most Observations Received via SAT Phone & HF Radio Kodiak Averages About 3,000 Transmitted Observations Per Year Kodiak Averages About 5,000 Marine Briefings Per Year

4. Alaska Website for Encoding Ship Observations

5. WFO Juneau Alaska 12 staff members involved with briefing & Shipob Collection in 2014 16 On Board Visits to Cruise Ships, Ferries, Tugs so far in 2014 Geri Swanson Ursula Jones

6. Email Observations Processed in Alaska at: webship@noaa.gov350,000 in 2013367,000 projected for 2014 Most Observations are Auto Forwarded to Alaska from: shipobs@noaa.gov Alaska Supported Automated Ships Transmit Directly to: webship@noaa.gov Alaska Provides a Valuable Backup COMMS Path for Email Ship Observations Due to all the Bounce Back and Failure Messages with shipobs@noaa.gov – some ships will only use webship@noaa.gov Some Non USA VOS Ships Use USA Email Addresses

7. Alaska Hosts the Only USA E-Mail Ship Observation Display WebsiteThis is a Valuable Tool for Data Quality Control

8. Alaska Supports 15 Automated Hourly Observing Ships & Platforms These are Primarily Research Vessels Which Do Not Use NOAA SCS An hourly email data message is sent to Alaska at: webship@noaa.gov Alaska software coverts data to BBXX format & transmits to NWSTG

9. Alaska Uses Live AIS Maps to Assist with Observation Collection

10. Alaska has 3 Offices that Transmit Ice ObservationsThank You Very Much for Listening!