Profumo proposes operational weather routing services for the maritime community, based on cooperative collection of meteo-marine data from commercial vessels. The idea is to establish a cooperative schema where meteo-marine data is collected from standard on-board instrumentation. Acquired data is used in the Profumo Service Center to provide enhanced meteo-marine forecast and nowcast capabilities on a local scale. Meteo-marine conditions are important not only for the safety of navigation but also for the economics of commercial activities. A study shows that impact of meteo-marine factors (wind, waves, currents) can be quantified as around 14% of the overall energy (i.e. fuel) consumption. The possibility, through the provision of specific commercial weather routing services, of reducing the impact of meteomarine conditions on navigation safety, in terms of prevention of sea accidents (with associated costs) and on fuel consumption (with associated environmental benefits) constitutes the challenge of Profumo services. Profumo services are aimed at two objectives: 1. Improved safety of navigation and 2. Fuel consumption reduction. Those objectives are perceived by the end user community as a strong value added in economic terms. Fuel reduction and safety for passengers and goods are valuable assets for the professional user community and - for the small fleets or individual commercial boats community.
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