Weather research
Since June 2026 Havgard has run a live laboratory on North Sea visibility: every forecast is frozen when it is issued and graded against what actually happened. This is the short version.
Low visibility cancels offshore helicopter flights. The operational question is simple and expensive: will this helideck be below the limit in 6, 12 or 24 hours? A miss strands a crew; a false alarm delays a departure. Everything we build is shaped by that trade-off.
Underneath sits a scientific question: how does offshore sea fog form, and how far ahead can it be forecast from public weather data? We are answering it with real measurements, every day.
Since June 2026 we have paired the measured visibility from around 30 offshore helidecks, from the North Sea to the Barents Sea, with the forecast that was issued before it. Forecasts are frozen at issue time, so nothing is ever recomputed in hindsight, and an improvement only ships after it has proved itself on data the model has not seen.
In our own verification, about nine in ten basin-wide fog outbreaks, the ones that actually cancel flights, were flagged six hours ahead, and the region-wide fog switch was spotted about a day in advance.
Helicopter Trigger Index
In winter, a helicopter flying through the wrong cloud can trigger a lightning strike itself. Our Helicopter Trigger Index maps where that risk exists, built to match the Norwegian Meteorological Institute's own operational product and checked against it.
Rendered as a smooth map with the flight corridors overlaid, not a grid of blocks.
From the Barents Sea to the northern UK sector.
Active through the season when helicopter-triggered lightning is a real risk.
The workflow
Eight steps, every one of them logged. A chain of custody from the first data point to the final grade.
Weather models, marine data and official forecasts are collected for every station, several times a day.
Each forecast is placed in its regional context: what the surrounding stations and the wider basin are doing.
Our engine turns those inputs into a visibility range, a fog probability and the reasons behind the call.
The forecast is locked with a version stamp the moment it is issued. It can never be edited afterwards.
For the next few hours, fresh measurements sharpen the call.
Apps receive a ready-to-show forecast with a confidence level and plain-language reasons, in seven languages.
The apps only display what the server says, so the engine can improve without app updates.
Every issued forecast is graded against what was measured, so the model never grades its own homework.
North Sea Helicopter Radar
A real-time offshore helicopter radar fused with the rig map. Offshore coverage is a mix of real plots and estimated positions, and the map always shows which is which: bright is real, faded is estimated.
It powers the radar in Helio and the radar module in our operator dashboards.
Working with us
We are open to collaborating with meteorological institutes, operators and researchers. If you have a weather problem where the decision matters, we would like to hear about it.
A live, verified testbed of around 30 offshore stations, and the infrastructure to trial new ideas prospectively. We would like to see how our approach holds up on your fields.
Station-specific verification, your own helideck sensors as extra ground truth, and the Helideck Forecast API inside your operations dashboard.
Helideck Forecast APIVisibility, lightning, sea state, icing: the method transfers. Tell us the decision you need to make.