If grib files are useful to try to understand the weather situation, it is almost necessary to load weather maps to better understand it.
Surface pressure charts, also called isobaric charts, synoptic charts or frontal charts, are commonly used. They allow visualizing:
- warm and cold fronts
- centers of action for highs and lows
- isobars
There are two types of surface pressure charts:
- surface chart analysis
- surface chart forecasts at 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours.
Charts are produced in different projections. The NOAA publishes most of them in Mercator projection which allow us to embed them in the app.
Weather charts are images. When they are available, we have selected those in the TIF format where the files sizes are the smallest.
The charts can be downloaded directly when you have an internet connection or picked up by an exchange of email with SailDocs when you’re at sea with Iridium.