Terms of use

The agreement between you and Geo Horizons for using WEMo. Please read the section on model results in particular: WEMo gives estimates, not measurements.

Effective 4 October 2026.

1. The agreement

WEMo is provided by Geo Horizons, based in North Carolina, United States ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using WEMo you agree to these terms and to our Privacy policy. If you use WEMo on behalf of an organisation, you agree to them on its behalf and confirm you are allowed to do so. If you don't agree, please don't use WEMo.

2. Accounts

You must be 18 or older to create an account. Give a real email address you can receive mail at, keep your password to yourself, and tell us promptly if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account. One person per account, please; for a team, each person should have their own.

3. Free early access

WEMo is currently free during early access, with limits such as the number of saved projects, the number of sites per run and one run at a time. We may change these limits, add features, or introduce paid plans. We will not charge you without your agreement: paid plans, if introduced, will be optional and will have their price and terms shown before you sign up for them.

4. Your content

You keep all rights to what you put into WEMo, such as the areas you draw and the files you upload, and to the results of your runs. You give us permission to store, copy and process that content only as needed to run WEMo for you, to keep it working and to meet legal obligations. That permission ends when you delete the content or your account, apart from backup copies, which are overwritten within 30 days.

Only upload files you have the right to use. Don't upload sensitive personal information; WEMo has no need for it.

5. Acceptable use

Please don't:

• use WEMo for anything unlawful, or to harm others;
• try to get into accounts, data or parts of the system that aren't yours, or test its security without our written permission;
• overload the service, get around its limits (for example with several accounts for one person, or scripts that get past the API's limits), or interfere with other people's use of it;
• copy, resell or rent access to WEMo itself, or present it as your own service;
• upload malicious files or content that infringes someone else's rights.

We may stop runs, remove content or suspend accounts that break these rules, and we will tell you why unless the law or security prevents it.

6. The WEMo API

You may run WEMo from your own scripts and software with personal API keys made on your projects page (see the API guide). API use counts as use of your account: these terms, your account's limits and the rules above all apply, and you are responsible for everything done with your keys.

• Keep keys secret. Don't share them, publish them or build them into software other people can see; if one may have leaked, revoke it straight away.
• Each key is for you (or software you run for your own work or your organisation's). Don't use keys to give other people access to WEMo, or to resell or rent WEMo's results as a service of your own, without a written agreement with us.
• Keep within the API's limits, such as requests per minute and one run at a time, and don't try to get around them.

You may use and publish results you get through the API in the same way as results from the web app (see section 7). We may change the API, its limits or its availability, as with any part of the service, and we will give notice by email before a change that would stop working scripts. We may revoke keys that are misused or that we believe have leaked, and will tell you if we do.

7. Model results

WEMo estimates wave exposure with a simplified, fetch-based wave model driven by global datasets: reanalysis wind (about 25 km), wave-model swell and GEBCO bathymetry (about 450 m), unless you supply your own. It has been compared with a spectral wave model and with buoy measurements (see How it works), but at any particular place its results can differ substantially from the real waves, for example where the bathymetry or wind data are poor, close to structures, or in conditions the model doesn't represent.

• Results are for planning, screening and comparing sites. They are not for navigation or any purpose involving safety at sea or on the water.
• They are not a substitute for site measurements or for design by a qualified professional. Don't rely on them alone for engineering design, construction, permits, insurance, or decisions where an error could cause injury, damage or significant financial loss.
• Check important results against local measurements and expert judgement, and make your own decisions on them.

8. Data sources and credits

WEMo uses data from other organisations, each with its own terms. When you publish or share WEMo results, please credit WEMo and the data you used:

• WEMo: Malhotra, A., Fonseca, M.S., 2007. WEMo (Wave Exposure Model): Formulation, Procedures and Validation. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 65.
• Bathymetry: GEBCO Compilation Group, GEBCO Grid. The GEBCO Grid is in the public domain and must not be used for navigation.
• Wind and swell: Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, licensed under CC BY 4.0, based on the ERA5 reanalysis (contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information) and on Meteo-France's MFWAM wave model.
• Measured wind (optional): NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information Integrated Surface Database (ISD), US Government data in the public domain; Environment and Climate Change Canada buoy data from the Fisheries and Oceans Canada MEDS archive (contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada); and moored buoy and platform data from the E.U. Copernicus Marine Service (Copernicus Marine Service information, from its In Situ Thematic Assembly Centre and the agencies that supply it). Some non-US weather-station data in ISD are restricted to non-commercial use by their national weather services (WMO Resolution 40); you are responsible for checking this before using such data commercially.
• Map imagery: Sentinel-2 cloudless (https://s2maps.eu) by EOX IT Services GmbH, containing modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016 & 2017; Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics and the GIS User Community; U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map. Maps: OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); Esri Ocean basemap (Esri, GEBCO, NOAA, National Geographic and other contributors). World shoreline: © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Imagery and maps are shown under their providers' terms and may not be extracted or reused outside WEMo.

You are responsible for following the terms of any data you upload yourself.

9. Our software

The WEMo application, its design, code and documentation, and the WEMo and Geo Horizons names and logos belong to Geo Horizons. These terms let you use WEMo through its website; they don't give you any other rights to it. Your results are yours to use, including commercially, subject to the credits above. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

10. The service

We work to keep WEMo available and your data safe, but we can't promise it will always be available, error-free or unchanged. We may need to pause it for maintenance, and we may change or remove features. Keep copies of results you need by downloading them. If we ever close WEMo, we will give at least 30 days' notice by email so you can download your work.

11. Ending your use

You can stop using WEMo at any time and delete your account from your dashboard, which deletes your projects, runs and uploaded files. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or puts the service or other users at risk, normally after a warning. Sections 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13 continue to apply after your use ends.

12. Warranty and liability

WEMo is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including about accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability or non-infringement.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Geo Horizons will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or business opportunities, arising from your use of WEMo or its results, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for any claim relating to WEMo is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for WEMo in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100.

Some places don't allow some of these exclusions or limits. Where that is the case, they apply only as far as the law permits, and nothing in these terms limits liability that can't legally be limited.

You agree to cover Geo Horizons against claims by others arising from your breach of these terms or from content you upload, including reasonable legal costs.

13. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that we can't resolve informally will be decided by the state or federal courts located in North Carolina, and you and we agree to those courts' jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, this doesn't take away any protection you have under the law of the place you live. Please contact us first: most problems can be solved by email.

14. General

These terms and the Privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about WEMo. If part of them can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still do so later. You may not transfer these terms to anyone else; we may transfer them to whoever takes over WEMo. We may update these terms: we will change the date at the top and, for significant changes, tell you by email or in the app at least 14 days before they take effect. If you keep using WEMo after that, the new terms apply.

15. Contact

Geo Horizons, North Carolina, United States · [email protected] · geohorizons.co