Sailors help forecast the weather

When passengers recently boarded the Pacific Eden at Station Pier in Melbourne — a P&O cruise ship with a checkered history of terrible gastro outbreaks —  little did they know their holiday voyage would also play an important role in forecasting the wind.

The ship is the latest in a fleet of 60 international vessels whose crews voluntarily collect information for the Bureau of Meteorology about wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, pressure, ocean conditions and visibility at sea.

Some ships also drop probes in the ocean en-route to measure sea temperatures up to one kilometre deep.

All of the data collected on board is sent to the Bureau via satellite and then shared freely with every national meteorological service in the world.

Here in Australia the information is used to produce coastal waters and high seas forecasts and track changes in ocean temperatures.

The Bureau's Port Meteorological Officer Justin Wood says information collected by ships like Pacific Eden is vital.

"This network is absolutely essential to create our forecasts and to verify information we get from satellites… meteorologists around the globe also use the information. We are so grateful to have the co-operation of marine operators and their crews."

Mr Wood says the Bureau is always on the look-out for more volunteer marine observers.

"These cargo, cruise and research ships fitted with our equipment really help us to increase our knowledge of oceans and weather around the world. We are always keen to receive more information collected on the high seas to continually improve marine forecasts."