Frontiers in Marine Science (May 2019)

From Observation to Information and Users: The Copernicus Marine Service Perspective

  • Pierre Yves Le Traon,
  • Antonio Reppucci,
  • Enrique Alvarez Fanjul,
  • Lotfi Aouf,
  • Arno Behrens,
  • Maria Belmonte,
  • Abderrahim Bentamy,
  • Laurent Bertino,
  • Vittorio Ernesto Brando,
  • Matilde Brandt Kreiner,
  • Mounir Benkiran,
  • Thierry Carval,
  • Stefania A. Ciliberti,
  • Hervé Claustre,
  • Emanuela Clementi,
  • Giovanni Coppini,
  • Gianpiero Cossarini,
  • Marta De Alfonso Alonso-Muñoyerro,
  • Anne Delamarche,
  • Gerald Dibarboure,
  • Frode Dinessen,
  • Marie Drevillon,
  • Yann Drillet,
  • Yannice Faugere,
  • Vicente Fernández,
  • Andrew Fleming,
  • M. Isabel Garcia-Hermosa,
  • Marcos García Sotillo,
  • Gilles Garric,
  • Florent Gasparin,
  • Cedric Giordan,
  • Marion Gehlen,
  • Marilaure L. Gregoire,
  • Stephanie Guinehut,
  • Mathieu Hamon,
  • Chris Harris,
  • Fabrice Hernandez,
  • Fabrice Hernandez,
  • Jørgen B. Hinkler,
  • Jacob Hoyer,
  • Juha Karvonen,
  • Susan Kay,
  • Robert King,
  • Thomas Lavergne,
  • Benedicte Lemieux-Dudon,
  • Leonardo Lima,
  • Chongyuan Mao,
  • Matthew J. Martin,
  • Simona Masina,
  • Angelique Melet,
  • Bruno Buongiorno Nardelli,
  • Glenn Nolan,
  • Ananda Pascual,
  • Jenny Pistoia,
  • Atanas Palazov,
  • Jean Francois Piolle,
  • Marie Isabelle Pujol,
  • Anne Christine Pequignet,
  • Elisaveta Peneva,
  • Begoña Pérez Gómez,
  • Loic Petit de la Villeon,
  • Nadia Pinardi,
  • Andrea Pisano,
  • Sylvie Pouliquen,
  • Rebecca Reid,
  • Elisabeth Remy,
  • Rosalia Santoleri,
  • John Siddorn,
  • Jun She,
  • Joanna Staneva,
  • Ad Stoffelen,
  • Marina Tonani,
  • Luc Vandenbulcke,
  • Karina von Schuckmann,
  • Gianluca Volpe,
  • Cecilie Wettre,
  • Anna Zacharioudaki

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00234
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) provides regular and systematic reference information on the physical and biogeochemical ocean and sea-ice state for the global ocean and the European regional seas. CMEMS serves a wide range of users (more than 15,000 users are now registered to the service) and applications. Observations are a fundamental pillar of the CMEMS value-added chain that goes from observation to information and users. Observations are used by CMEMS Thematic Assembly Centres (TACs) to derive high-level data products and by CMEMS Monitoring and Forecasting Centres (MFCs) to validate and constrain their global and regional ocean analysis and forecasting systems. This paper presents an overview of CMEMS, its evolution, and how the value of in situ and satellite observations is increased through the generation of high-level products ready to be used by downstream applications and services. The complementary nature of satellite and in situ observations is highlighted. Long-term perspectives for the development of CMEMS are described and implications for the evolution of the in situ and satellite observing systems are outlined. Results from Observing System Evaluations (OSEs) and Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) illustrate the high dependencies of CMEMS systems on observations. Finally future CMEMS requirements for both satellite and in situ observations are detailed.

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