Weather Net ™

Weather Tracking Software

WeatherNet is a system designed to optimize the download of weather products via wireless connections. The product offers highly compressed text, images, charts, buoy data, radar, GRIB files, and many more formats. A total of over 10,000 continuously updated weather products are available to the user on demand by the push of a button.

The user simply drags the weather products he wishes to download into batch folders and then pushes the download button. WeatherNet immediately connects to the server via a wireless connection or email (sat phone, HF/Pactor Radio) and downloads the requested data. After the download WeatherNet can be configured to automatically display the new weather data with OCENS WeatherStation or SeaStation software or other viewers

New Pro Services and High Definition GRIB Data from names you know and trust!

• Jenifer Clark's Gulf Stream
  Jenifer's analyses are available via WeatherNet . In what has grown to be one of the most respected sources of in-depth analyses of ocean information, the Jenifer Clark Gulf Stream Analysis offers unprecedented insights into the dynamic nature of the Gulf Stream.
  Maybe you have used Jenifer's charts in the past but forgot to sign up with Jenifer? - Just open your WeatherNet program and download the latest chart and analysis. WeatherNet takes the hassle out, Its that easy!
  
• Chris Parker Met Forecasts for the Bahamas and Caribbean
  Living aboard his sailboat in the Bahamas, Chris provides daily forecasts that reflect his understanding of the weather processes at work and his cruising background. This sailing experience adds a special touch to the forecasts. Not only do the forecasts offer informative gauges of pending weather, they do while personalizing them to the real-world needs of cruisers in the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
  
• Theyr High Definition GRIB Data
  WeatherNet 's High Definition data are produced by the Theyr company for distribution in WeatherNet . Theyr produces one-fourth of one degree grided files on an hourly basis for wind, surface air temperature, surface pressure, precipitation, cloudiness, 500 hPa heights, and 500 hPa winds. The high time resolution [short time intervals], together with the high space resolution [short space intervals] allows the user to study forecasted events in high detail and thereby detect weather features which are otherwise indiscernible in conventional models. GRIB data found within the High Definition topic represent the highest spatial and temporal resolution GRIB data available from any source in the world. Whereas most GRIBs are produced at 1 to 1.25 degree resolution on 6 to 12 hour intervals, WeatherNet 's High Definition GRIBs are 0.25 degree data forecasted on an hour by hour basis.
  
• WaLa Ocean Color
  WeatherNet is the exclusive home to ocean color data originating from WaLa, LLC. Ocean color data depicts levels of chlorophyll produced by phytoplankton in the ocean. It is an excellent indicator of productivity and has strong associations with fish catch. It is a particularly useful tool in finding fish when water temperature differences are minor. WaLa ocean color data via WeatherNet are available at a fraction of the cost of ocean color data from other sources. Most importantly, these data can be purchased on an as-needed basis rather than on a subscription basis as required by other agents. All WeatherNet /WaLa ocean color data can be viewed and analyzed in OCENS SeaStation and/or WeatherStation software. WeatherNet updates ocean color files from WaLa on a daily basis. Ocean color files for the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Western North Atlantic are updated by 0300 UTC. Ocean color files for the Eastern North Pacific are updated by 0700 UTC daily.

How it works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WeatherNet consists of 3 components.

• An internet robot: It continually crawls the internet updating the local content store of weather data on a Central server that is stored in a secure co-location facility with 100% network access guaranteed assuring the user the most complete and up to date repository of weather data anywhere. Note that about 1/2 the weather products are generated locally and packaged specifically for WeatherNet.
  
• The weather server: It interacts with the client application running on the user's computer. The server accepts requests for weather data, compresses the data, packs the data into a proprietary data stream specifically designed for wireless data connections, and sends the data to the client application.
  
• The client application: It interacts directly with the user allowing him/her to easily select weather products adding them to batches which can with the click of a button be enabled or disabled. By simply pushing a button the application connects to the server via the desired wireless interface and immediately downloads the requested weather.

To download weather you simply run the WeatherNet client on your Windows PC, enable or disable the pre configured batches or create a new batch for your specific circumstance, push the download button, and then view the data. The download is completed in a few minutes, on demand, when you need the data. This product is revolutionary in that there are no firm schedules to adhere to or lengthy downloads. You get the data you need, when you need it and on your own terms.

WeatherNet contains the most extensive collection of weather products for mariners in the world. There are over 5,000 products currently on line and growing every day. Weather categories include:

* Aviation
* Graphical Buoy Charts
* Buoy Text
* GRIB
* Ice
* Nexrad
* Ocean Charts
* Satellite Imagery
* Text
* Weather Charts (WeFax)

Weather products cover the globe and consist of atmospheric, surface, and sub-surface forecasts including for example, Jet stream data, surface wind and wave, and sub surface temperatures down to 5000 meters. Weather products are continually being added to our content store guaranteeing you the most complete and up to date collection of data anywhere.

Compression
WeatherNet uses a number of compression techniques to squeeze weather data down as much as possible reducing download times and saving you considerable satellite air time. For most products the compression can be dramatic. Ocean temperature charts for example are compressed down to by a factor of 8x. Weather charts are compressed with a factor of 4x going from 32K to 8K for example. Buoy GIF data starts out at about 22K and get squeezed to 2K for an impressive compression factor of 10x. Here are some of the ways we reduce weather data sizes and save you money.

• Proprietary transfer protocol - The WeatherNet server speaks to the client running on your PC with a wireless protocol specifically designed to optimize download transfers of data. Standard internet protocols such as FTP and HTTP are very inefficient when downloading weather over a wireless device such as a satellite phone. Our benchmarks show an increase of 3x when transferring comparable data with WeatherNet vs. FTP over a Globalstar satellite link. A factor of 7x improvement has been observed for HTTP transfers over the same medium.
• Proprietary compression of weather images - WeatherNet 's compression technology reduces standard weather images by 2 to 10 times their original size.
• HTML stripping - All HTML weather content is converted to plain text reducing sizes by a factor of 5. A 10K offshore HTML forecast is reduced to 2K for example.
• Data condensation - For certain weather products, such as Buoy data, WeatherNet extracts pertinent material removing dead wood. Buoy Text goes from 100 lines to 2 lines yielding current observation data and removing all historical readings.

Bottom line... WeatherNet 's advanced compression features dramatically reduce the time required to download weather. This savings in time translates directly to savings for you. Our motto is that "it's cheaper to pay for WeatherNet than it is to receive it forecast for free from other sources". Wireless Interfaces

WeatherNet supports any wireless interface that supports a Windows Dial Up Interface. Supported devices include:

* Cellular phones
* Globalstar satellite phones
* Iridium
* Inmarsat M/F
* SSB/HF Pactor III
* Geosat Solutions
* Generic Internet Connection (Dial up, DSL, ISDN, Broadband)

If your provider supplies a dial up interface for your wireless device chances are that WeatherNet will work exceptionally well with it.

PRICING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WeatherNet's fee structure is also revolutionary. Users simply activate their account and then pay for the weather they download. Each weather product is priced independently, data costs and estimated air time are computed prior to the download. The amazing thing is that WeatherNet is so efficient that you will pay less using this for pay service than you would downloading this data for free over the internet using conventional methods!