Omni-Situ Planetary Ocean Surface Current Data

Omni-Situ planetary ocean surface current data is eOdyn's observational dataset of ocean surface currents measured from ship movements. Surface currents are hard to observe directly: drifting buoys are costly and difficult to deploy in numbers, and altimetry satellites resolve only the geostrophic part of the flow.

eOdyn's Omni-Situ technology treats each vessel as a current sensor. It processes Automatic Identification System (AIS) messages collected by coastal receivers and by satellites in low Earth orbit (SAT-AIS), learns each vessel's hydrodynamic behaviour, and compares the vessel's actual movement with its intended path to isolate the drift caused by the current. The result is a total surface current that also includes tidal and wind-driven components. eOdyn reports more than 100,000 measurements at any given time across all oceans; measurement density is highest where maritime traffic is heaviest.

The data is delivered through eOdyn's Data Streams API with global coverage, near-real-time updates and a worldwide archive, and there is no system for the customer to deploy. The same API also offers drifter observations, remote-sensing products, NEMO and HYCOM model forecasts and AIS data, and eOdyn supplies daily or weekly maps of ocean features such as eddies and fronts. In the Copernicus Marine Service ADEOS project with SHOM and IMT Atlantique, the AIS-derived currents showed more structures and filaments than altimetry-derived currents and were close to HF radar estimates in the Sicily Strait. A free one-year data sample is available for non-commercial evaluation.