MetOcean Solutions wins NZ Defence award

New Zealand Defence Force during training operations.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced MetOcean Solutions a winner of the annual Minister of Defence Industry Awards of Excellence for 2016. The company won the 'Provision of a product to Defence for less than $15 million' category for the SurfZoneView software. SurfZoneView is a tool designed to assist amphibious landings by modelling and visualising surf conditions. 

"We are very proud to receive the award," says Technical Director Dr David Johnson. "The creation of SurfZoneView was an excellent collaborative project in which we worked together with the New Zealand Defence Technology Agency to take their concept from vision to reality. It is a great example of applying leading edge oceanographic science to solve real-world problems. We are very happy to have created something that will help keep the Royal New Zealand Navy personnel safe." 

MetOcean Solutions is now making the tool commercially available to navies, civil defence agencies and coast guards around the world.

"The safe transfer of equipment and personnel from sea onto land is fraught with difficulty for any agency operating in the nearshore environment," adds Dr Johnson. "Beach landings are notoriously dangerous, but through modelling the wave and current conditions we can identify safe transects and landing spots. The user inputs the bathymetry of the area of interest and specifies the offshore wave conditions, and the tool does the rest.

"MetOcean Solutions provided forecasts for the naval landings in Kaikoura in connection with evacuation of people following the earthquakes there." 
 
David believes that the success of the SurfZoneView was the result of good collaboration with the Defence Technology Agency.
 
"Close relationships are critical to solve the key challenges facing New Zealand. We have a finite pool of people and resources to protect, manage and understand the vast ocean and extensive coastline of New Zealand. We have a collaborative project underway to deploy a wave buoy further south than ever done before. The involvement of the Defence Technology Agency and contribution of a New Zealand Defence Force vessel to do the deployment will be critical for the success of that project."

Click here to watch our SurfZoneView video.

Click here for the Ministry of Defence press release.