Worldwaves Twenty Years and Hundred Countries
Fugro OCEANOR's WorldWaves has recently recorded a milestone with data for the hundredth country safely delivered. The WorldWaves database and associated software packages have roots that can be traced back twenty years this past summer. The WorldWaves story began on 31 July 1989 when a report was released entitled 'Wave Model Data' for Le Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France as part of a project together with Marintek 'Study of the Seastate for the Needs of the Hermes Spaceplane' and was possibly the first time satellite altimeter data had been used to validate and calibrate data from a wave hindcast, fittingly in a space-related project.
The Hermes Spaceplane was conceived by CNES and, following the Challenger disaster, it was planned that Hermes would have an emergency escape capsule that could, in the event, allow the crew to return safely to earth, landing in the ocean. Hermes was to be launched along two possible trajectories eastwards from Kourou in French Guiana towards the Azores and the Cape Verde. Along these trajectories, OCEANOR was contracted to provide wave and wind statistics in seven emergency pick-up sites in the ocean.
"WorldWaves is in fact several things. First, it is a comprehensive high quality global offshore wave and wind database which we at Fugro OCEANOR use in our own consultancy work (for example, for clients in the offshore and coastal engineering industries as well as wave and offshore wind energy interests). It is a complete global coastal wave modelling package, integrating the up to 50+ years offshore database with coastal modelling tools, including the state-of-the-art SWAN model, global bathymetry and statistical analysis tools. Data are most frequently sold for single points, but complete packages for countries, regions and worldwide are also available."
