Putting visibility on the map! See the forecasted visibility for dive spots around the UK.
Following on from our learnings from fellow divers, we’ve started making changes to Marla, towards our aim of creating the go-to app for divers.
We now show the predicted underwater visibility for dive spots on the map! Our algorithm calculates the forecasted visibility for dive spots around the UK. We hope this will help scuba divers, freedivers and spearfishers find a spot to have a great and safe dive.
About the underwater visibility forecast
How the visibility is forecasted
The forecast is calculated by AI, analysing satellite data (CMEMS), wind, swell, rain and weather forecasts (Open Meteo) to create a visibility prediction. This prediction is then calibrated and compared to real world diver reports to improve the accuracy.
We need as many diver reports as possible to calibrate and improve the algorithm! The more diver reports we get the better our forecast will be. You can report the viz from any of your past dives to help.
When the forecast calculated
Every dive spot visibility is recalculated every hour. But you can also click on a dive spot (or anywhere on the sea) to recalculate based on an up-to-date weather forecast. So the viz forecast might slightly be different when it re-calculates. Tidal fluctuations over the day are currently not taken into account.
What the forecast shows
The forecast is for the vertical visibility in the water as seen from the sea surface. In future, we aim to leverage diver reports to also forecast horizontal visibility at the sea bottom. Forecasts are provided with a resolution of 300m around the UK.
What the forecast isn’t
The visibility forecast doesn’t take into account safe diving conditions, please check the conditions before you go.
The ranges
The visibility is estimated in 4 ranges, coloured from red to green. Red to green was the preferred option based on our diver research. We’ve added texture to the pins to ensure it's still useful to colour-blind divers. The range accounts for potential errors in satellite and weather measurements and represents an overall estimation rather than specific values for different areas.
No spot? No problem.
If your favourite dive spot is not on Marla, you can click anywhere on the map to get a visibility forecast for any spot on the UK coast.
Before and after
Previously, to see the predicted underwater visibility in Marla, you had to find the spot you might like to dive at, click on it and then wait for the calculation to take place. While this worked – you got a visibility prediction – it was still an exercise in finding a spot that had the best visibility near you.
To be able to see the visibility prediction on the map, we would need to pre-calculate the visibility all around the coast. However, we currently don’t have the processing power to pre-compute the visibility for every metre around the coastline at the same time. We wouldn’t be able to display this as a ‘heatmap’. We can however pre-calculate the visibility for the 200ish dive spots we have so far around the UK. This gave us a visibility prediction right on the map!
Divers can now see all the dive spots in their local (and not so local) areas, and quickly see how the visibility is, and where might be the best place to have a great dive.
What we’re working on now
Showing live diver visibility reports: There's nothing like a report from a diver coming straight out of the water. Your dive reports will soon be live on the site for others to see your dive report as they happen.
Get notified: Set alerts to help you get that elusive good visibility, to get in the water as much as possible.
Improving the forecast: We’re constantly working on improving our algorithm to improve the accuracy of our forecast. Using more and better data, and the latest technology to improve the accuracy of the visibility forecast.
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