What do you think of adding a meteo section in this forum ?

[Alan Cattelliot]

As sailors, we all share a very strong relation with the weather. Subject of passionnate discussions at the pub, unforgettable actor of our best and worst sailing experiences, sometimes ally sometimes enemy, the weather cannot be separated from our lifes.

I've just discovered this pretty nice website, https://earth.nullschool.net/, which I find very usefull to understand global circulations of winds. Moreover, it gives several layers of great interest, for those you wish to get a better understanding of our influence on the planet.

As an example , I show here the concentration of NO2 (Nitrogen dioxyde) in the atmosphere, centered on the Antartica. NO2 primarily gets in the air from the burning of fuel. The yellow arrow point to the Ross station, the historical entry point to this continent, by the Ross archipelago. A regular connection for the very few having the privilege to have a base here. But what about the presence of NO2 at the coordinates of the green circle ? I check the AIS, and find out that it correspond to a single ship. It seems that we are able to track ICE ships by looking at the atmospheric NO2. Amazing.

Now let's have a look at the Atlantic Ocean...

Gosh... Our footprints on this planet are really something. Single long cruise airplanes can also be tracked, the same way. Is is not an evidence of our influence on this planet ?

 

[Barry]

www.flightaware.com
is quite spectacular and monitors global airplanes running with transponders.
If you hold the mouse over a specific plane it will give you the data on it, click on it and it will give you more info
And not too many planes flying over the Ukraine,

 

[Alan Cattelliot]

Thanks for sharing. Excellent site. I will certainly use it when travelling. It also gives the taxi duration. Well done.