Optimal Ship Weather Routing Using Isochrone Method on the Basis of Weather Changes

Weather routing of ships is increasingly recognized as an important contribution to safe, economical and reliable ship route. The environmental factors which mainly include wind, wave and current may severely affect ships' safety, speed and fuel consumption depending on their force and direction, so ship route should be decided and updated with the weather changes gradually. This paper outlines the basic isochrone method and attempts to obtain an optimal route on the basis of the dynamically changing weather, which can be forecasted by the coupled atmosphere-wave-ocean model. The forecasted weather and its changes are taken into account to estimate the isochrones and the time-minimum route step by step, and the route will be rectified with the updated environmental factors during the voyage. Finally, the time-minimum weather route is determined with the consideration of environmental factors and their changes.