Greetings all,

This issue of the Mercator Ocean Journal is dedicated to the main outcomes of the MyOcean2 and Follow-On projects. The EC/FP7 MyOcean2 and H2020 MyOcean Follow-On projects covering the period from April 2012 to May 2015 have paved the way to the current Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (http://marine.copernicus.eu/).

Papers are dedicated to the following thematic:
Dorandeu as an introduction is presenting the objectives and organization of the MyOcean2 and Follow-On projects.

Delamarche and Giordan are then describing the service to users, what kind of service MyOcean delivers and how it is being improved continuously.

Next paper by Crosnier et al. describes which products are delivered to users and how the content of the catalogue has been regularly updated with new and more scientifically accurate products.

The following paper by Tonani et al. presents the seven MFCs (Monitoring and Forecasting Centers) which provide with ocean forecast, analysis and reanalysis products at the global and regional scales. All these systems have been able to increase the number and the quality of the products during the MyOcean phases.

Simoncelli et al. follow with an overview of the principal characteristics of the physical and biogeochemical regional reanalysis. A standard validation methodology has been defined and applied to all the reanalysis products to ensure an adequate evaluation of their accuracy.

Hackett et al. are then presenting the satellite-based TACs (Thematic Assembly Centers) which produce observations of the Global Ocean and European regional seas: the Sea Level TAC (sea surface elevation products), the Ocean Colour TAC (optical products) and the Ocean and Sea Ice TAC (SST, sea ice and surface wind products).

Pouliquen et al. follow with an overview of the main achievements of the InSitu TAC. The InSitu TAC is a distributed service integrating InSitu data from different sources (e.g. floats, buoys, gliders, ferrybox, drifters, SOOP) and carries out quality control in a homogeneous manner. The goal of the TACs in MyOcean was two-fold: 1) to provide assimilation and validation data for the Monitoring and Forecasting Centres (MFCs) and 2) to provide core observational products for a broad range of downstream users.

Finally, the main achievements for NEMO ocean code evolution are presented by the NEMO System Team. NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) is a state-of-the-art modelling framework used in a wide variety of applications whose prime objectives are oceanographic research, operational oceanography, seasonal to decadal forecasting and climate studies. This paper will describe the NEMO development processes, the main achievements in NEMO reference code developments during MyOcean project, and the mutual contributions and benefits between MyOcean and NEMO.

Last but not least, Maksymczuk et al. provide with the description of the product quality achievements during MyOcean. Routine validation is performed on all products in order to objectively assess product quality. This is achieved by increasing the consistency between the validation performed on the products, and also by evaluating new metrics for understanding the scientific quality of the products.

We will meet again soon in April 2016 for a new issue jointly coordinated between Mercator Ocean and Coriolis. We wish you a pleasant reading,

Laurence CROSNIER, Editor in Chief

• Introduction MyOcean 2 and MyOcean Follow-On Projects by J. Dorandeu
• MyOcean User Service by A. Delamarche, C. Giordan
• Evolution of the catalogue of products during MyOcean2 and MyOcean Follow-On by L. Crosnier et al.
• Main achievements on MyOcean global and regional prediction systems by M. Tonany et al.
• MyOcean regional reanalyses: overview of reanalyses systems and main results by S. Simoncelli
• Main achievements for MyOcean satellite Thematic Assembly Centres by B. Hackett et al.
• Main achievements for MyOcean In Situ Thematic Assembly Centres by S. Pouliquen et al.
• Main achievements for NEMO evolution dring MyOcean period by NEMO system team
• Product quality achievements within MyOcean by J. Maksymczuk et al.