The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Voluntary Observing Ships’ (VOS) program is an international initiative by which ocean-going ships are recruited by National Meteorological Services to take and transmit meteorological observations. The VOS meteorological reports provide essential data that are used for numerical weather prediction models, global climate studies, real-time reports for marine safety advisories and ground truth for satellite observations. These observations are collected and transmitted manually using a standard WMO format.

Automated quality control MANMAR protocols ensure that manual observations are correctly entered.
Corrections for elevation and magnetic variation are made automatically using region detection algorithms. Region detection also supports automated reporting modes for Synoptic (6 hr.), Intermediate Synoptic (3 hr.), and Data Sparse (1 hr.) reporting regions when required. STORM and SPREP conditions are also automatically detected and transmitted.

Based on AXYS’ proven high-reliability automated buoys, AVOS addresses WMO’s objective to improve the frequency and accuracy of global observations at sea.