Instant weather on your PC, direct from MIDAS

Launching in February for just £50, SmartMet is software for Windows PCs that allows you to download and view weather information, from the MIDAS Weather server on the internet. This in itself is not new and most of us can already do that now. There's a huge difference.

One of SmartCom's many displays. You can zoom, pan and step through time in multiple layers, just as you need.

As you know, web browsing uses a huge amount of data, is slow over dial-up links and wastes a lot of time while you find the right web pages. Then to crown it all, once disconnected, the information is no longer available. To get round this, some high-end chart plotters do offer the display of GRIB weather forecast files, but the areas are generally pre-set, the downloads are large, and the software costs in the region of £400 or more.

Through its MIDAS source, SmartMet is designed to overcome these problems. In one go, you can download all the weather data you want, when you want, direct to your PC. Then, offline, you can view the data whichever way you like, with whatever local skew or preference you need. You can even specify exactly what area and times you want the forecast for, and exactly what kind of information is to be included in the forecast.

All this data is downloaded from the internet in a very compact format - quick, even via low-cost dial-up links - and many times faster than straight browsing. It also imports direct into the SmartMet application, so there's no there's messing around conforming downloaded files or e-mail attachments.

Once downloaded, you can build up the weather map exactly how you want, switching between layers, and displaying data in colour as shading, contours, text and symbols. You can also zoom in, pan around, and step through in time. If you want, you can also export weather forecasts as GRIB files, for use with chart plotters that support GRIB weather data.

All this gives you a tremendous amount to play with. Not normally accessed so easily by PC, the MIDAS Weather server offers a rich set of weather information. Current weather reports consist of ship, buoy and land based reports; satellite imagery; and QuickScat satellite based surface wind reports. Forecast data can be either 1-degree, 3-hour time-step, low resolution forecasts, or 0.2-degree, 1-hour time-step detailed forecasts.

Available data includes surface pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud cover and precipitation, air and sea/land temperature, tidal streams, surface currents, and wave height, direction and period. Data is automatically collated from a range of high quality weather report and forecast sources, and supplied to the user through a standard, common interface.

The high resolution forecasts, not previously available for download in Europe, are ideal when you need a detailed forecast for day sailing or racing. Coverage at present is Europe only - from the top of the Baltic across to Iceland, and down to the south east corner of the Mediterranean. During 2006, coverage will be rolled out to be worldwide.

Thanks to European Space Agency sponsorship, there's no charge for weather data until the end of 2006. After which basic forecasts will continue to be free, but detailed or extensive forecasts will be charged at a pound or two each.