SAPO (Auntonomous Wave Forecast System) of Balearic Islands is a 72-hour forecast service that SOCIB developed in collaboration with Puertos del Estado. This system runs on SOCIB's computing center. SWAN model is executed in automatic mode twice a day, using as input wave and wind forecasts provided by Puertos del Estado. The model results show the evolution of waves characteristics (height, period and direction) from deep to shallow waters, with a resolution of 1.4 km. Finer resolution (0.5km) simulations around the Balearic Islands are also available on SOCIB thredds server.

Forecast map and charts


The graphic below shows the significant wave height forecast for the next 3 days in 5 different points of the Balearic sea. Three of these points match with buoy locations. Therefore it is also possible to compare buoy data against model reanalysis.

There is a Zoom option to choose the time window to visualize, (the last 3 -7 days or the last month), the data showed is a reanalysis.

By clicking over the name of the legend, the user can switch on or off all the data series. This allows the user to visualize only the serie in which is interested.

Data access

Model outputs are available in NetCDF format through SOCIB THREDDS catalog:

Data generated by SAPO are freely available, provided that SOCIB and Puertos del Estado are properly acknowledged (see Data Policy section)