Odylab Inc.

About Odylab Inc.

Odylab, which stands for Ocean Dynamics Laboratory, operates as an academic research entity focused on the development of ocean models. The project is spearheaded by Zhigang Xu, Ph.D., and centers on researching water level variations, including tides, storm surges, and tsunamis, with applications in navigation safety, climate change, and natural hazards.

The primary work of Odylab is shared through its academic website, which details two main projects: the VTG Lab and the Tsunami Lab. The VTG, or Virtual Tide Gauge, is a mathematical transfer function designed to hindcast and forecast water level responses by processing global astronomical and atmospheric data. This technology serves as a cost-effective and practical alternative to physical tide gauges, particularly in remote or harsh environments where maintenance is difficult or infeasible. A notable application is a project to develop 150 VTGs for operation by the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS).

The Tsunami Lab features web-based, real-time simulation systems for the India-Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. It utilizes an All-Source Green's Function (ASGF) method, which pre-calculates the fundamental response functions for points of interest across an entire domain. This allows the system to generate a 12-hour tsunami arrival curve for specified locations within seconds of defining a source event, a significant improvement over traditional on-the-fly modeling that is often too slow for effective early warnings.