The app leads users to various sea and weather data in the form of interactive maps that provide access to prevailing sea conditions.Sea farers, divers and windsurfers around the Maltese islands and southern Sicily have a new app to help them plan their journeys and ensure safer trips.
The smartphone application called Kaptan, Maltese for ‘captain’, leads users to various sea and weather data in the form of interactive maps that provide user-friendly and user-defined access to prevailing sea conditions, as well as short-term past and forecast information.
The data for the service is mainly derived from the Calypso high-frequency radar observing system at four selected sites on the northern Maltese and southern Sicilian shores.
Satellite observations added to high-resolution weather and marine numerical models, run at the University of Malta specifically for the Malta-Sicily Channel, provide a full suite of very local reporting, and complement other weather forecasts derived from GFS/WRF models and local weather stations.
The app was developed as part of the Calypso project led by Aldo Drago, director of the Physical Oceanography Research Group, which forms part of the University of Malta’s Department of Geosciences. The project is partially funded by the ERDF Italia-Malta programme, Cohesion Policy 2007-2013.
The app may be downloaded for free for both Android and iOS devices from Google Play and App Store on iTunes respectively.
For further information e-mail aldo.drago@um.edu.mt.
The services are also available online at the website below.
www.capemalta.net/calypso/kaptan