Activities in and around harbours are susceptible to weather conditions. Not only the wind is a critical factor, especially for crane operations and stacking containers, but conditions such as visibility, temperature, precipitation, along with the hydrological factors are also important in the facility operational management.

Port authorities and most container terminals are required to receive location-specific weather forecasts. To increase the reliability these forecasts are supplemented with real-time data measured on location.

Observator has extensive experience in designing, installing and maintaining of monitoring stations in harbours and terminals. In addition to meteorological knowledge Observator also supplies sensors for the determination of water-related parameters, such as wave, current and water quality.

Observator has installed many stations to measure wind, temperature, humidity, visibility, precipitation and even the road conditions in terminals. Usually the existing LAN-network can be used for data distribution, allowing the actual weather conditions may be viewed at several locations. Wind displays can be installed in the cranes driven by LAN or by radio link to provide instantaneous weather information to the operator.

For displaying the collected data, our software OMC-Data-OnLine is used and can be equipped with a web server for data distribution through the internet. The software may further be provided with a Modbus server in order to share the data with PLC’s which can be used for the generation of alarms and control of latches.