The missions of Mercator Ocean

While it covers nearly 70% of the surface of the globe, the ocean is also of increasing importance in the economic (food, energy, transport..), environmental (climate change, protection of species, water quality etc..) and societal (safety at sea, education, employment..) spheres. The needs for specific and precise ocean information are becoming more numerous and varied.

The better we know and can predict its parameters, the better we can protect the ocean.

The idea behind operational oceanography, a discipline not yet 20 years old, is to be able to describe the ocean in real time and to predict its evolution dynamically and on an operational basis for the whole of its vast span and depth.

This is the essence of the mission entrusted to Mercator Ocean by its 5 founder partners, the major French players in oceanography: the CNRS, IFREMER, IRD, METEO FRANCE and SHOM.

 

In December 2017,  they decided to open up the capital of Mercator Ocean to major and prominent players in operational oceanography to strengthen Mercator Ocean’s capacity to expand in Europe and internationally. They are major national players in operational oceanography worldwide and key scientific partners of the Copernicus Marine Service and they include: the Italian CMCC (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici), the Norwegian NERSC (Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center), the British MET OFFICE, and the Spanish Puertos Del Estado.

Mercator Ocean is a French service provider of ocean information in real and deferred time: it is the French centre for offshore ocean analysis and forecasting.

The digital systems and the global models (of all the oceans of the Earth) developed by Mercator Ocean are able to describe the physical and biogeochemical states of the ocean at any time, above and beneath the surface, on the scale of the globe or of a region of the globe: Temperature, salinity, sea surface height, thickness of ice, state of currents, nutrients.

A customised oceanography service, adapted for each user

By constantly maintaining its systems at the cutting edge of science, Mercator Ocean is able to deliver a highly qualified customised oceanographic service to all its users all over the world: ocean information in real and deferred time, specific expertise on a given area, online ocean bulletins, maps, etc. Its operational services are delivered to users each week without fail.

Researchers, operators of public or commercial services, industrialists, academics, analysts and regatta competitors around the world can access personalised Mercator Ocean services. The service desk helps them qualify and define their needs for delivery of tailor-made products, maps, or expertise at precisely the right time.

A catalogue of available oceanographic services:
the Copernicus Marine Service

The Copernicus Marine Service is funded by the European commission and offers free, open access via a single point of entry: a dedicated portal that gives access to a catalogue of a hundred oceanography products (Observations and Models) that are regularly updated and which cover the global ocean and six regional seas.

This European service will be operational in April 2015 and relies on the proven capacity demonstrated as a prototype model since 2009 by the European “MyOcean” research projects (April 2009- March 2015), coordinated by Mercator Ocean (link to Copernicus programme). It is now accessible in a pre-operational mode via the MyOcean portal which already has almost 5000 subscribers from all over the world. To download a product, all you have to do is register free-of-charge with the Service Desk.

The Copernicus Marine Service offers the guarantee of providing the latest scientific knowledge through a permanent dialoguewith a community of specialists in operational oceanography, whether they be producers of data or experts participating in the MyOcean project.