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The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in collaboration with Internet Hellas (now member of Forthnet group), created and provide to all the subscribers of Greek mobile operators (Cosmote, Wind, Vodafone, Q-Telecom) a new service of weather forecast via SMS text messages. Through the poseidon@SMS service, you can receive via SMS forecast for a specified location regarding the wind speed and direction for the next 18 hours.
Using the service is easy. It is as simple as sending a text message to 54546 with the desirable location, and within a few seconds you will receive a reply SMS with the forecast for the specified location. Currently, there are two ways to send the information about location you are interested in:
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Follow the above links for further instructions on how to correctly compose the text message with the coordinates of the desired location.
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The forecast SMS message
After sending the message with the location information to 54546, you will receive within few seconds a replying message, as shown in the photo, containing the forecast for the next 18 hours split in six hours time intervals.
The "24/7 18 5B (NNE)" text means that on July 24, at 18.00 o'clock the wind speed will be 5 of Beaufort scale and will blow from north-northeast direction. The following photo contains the 18 hour forecast, from 18.00 July 24 to 6.00 July 25.
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Wind direction shortcuts description:
N : North
NNE : North - NorthEast
NE : NorthEast
ENE : East - NorthEast
E : East
ESE : East - Southeast
SE : SouthEast
SSE : South - SouthEast
S : South
SSW : South - SouthWest
SW : SouthWest
WSW : West - South West
W : West
WNW : West - NorthWest
NW : NorthWest
NNW : North - NorthWest |
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The service costs 0,25 euros + VAT
ONLY WIND FORECASTS ARE AVAILABLE VIA SMS
Poseidon sms service is available only for customers of greek mobile operators (under contract or through the use of prepaid SIMs).
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Sending the GPS coordinates 
In order to receive the forecast for the location of your interest, you have to send via SMS message the relevant GPS coordinates. That is, you have to write a message of the following form:
W GPS A B C D
where, A and B are the degrees and minutes of the geographic latitude,and C and D are the degrees and minutes of the geographic longitude.
Then send it to 54546.
Attention: Leave a space gap between the fields of the message.
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Example: If the coordinates of the place of your interest are: 38º 25' N and 26º 35' E the message that you will have to write is:
W GPS 38 25 26 35
and you will have to send it to 54546
as it appears in the next photograph |
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The answer will come within a few seconds, giving you the wind speed and direction at the coordinates that you sent, for the next 18 hours. In case where the GPS coordinates of the place of your interest cannot be used for any reason, then you can send us the necessary information via HCMR's special maps.
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Sending the coordinates based on the HCMR's maps
In order to receive the forecast, it is necessary for us to know the geographical reference for the place of your interest. HCMR has developed a number of special maps in order to facilitate this procedure. If you do not know the GPS coordinates for the desired location, then you can use the alternative coordinates found on these special maps and transmit these reference points to us.
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To access the HCMR’s special maps, click on the predefined areas of the above map. The maps are stored in pdf file format and except of geographical information they also contain details for the right composition and sending SMS messages to 54546. Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view these files. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed, click here to download it from Adobe's web page.We suggest creating a hard copy of all the available maps in order to be able to use the service at any time.
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The numbers on the margin of each map are the geographic longitude and latitude respectively. In order to send us the location of the area of your interest based on the coordinates on the map,
you should compose a message of this form:
W MAP A B
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| Where A and B are the geographic latitude and longitude respectively, as these arise from the map |
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If therefore you want the forecast for the point that appears marked aside, the resulted from the map coordinates are:
35,2 and 23,8
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The message that you will have to compose is:
W MAP 35,2 23,8
and you have to send it to 54546
as it appears in the nearby photograph
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Within a few seconds you will receive the replying message containing the forecast for wind speed and direction, at the coordinates that you sent, for the next 18 hours.. |
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