Implementing Operational Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting Systems: guide released
The guide, produced thanks to the cooperation of 51 institutions from 18 countries worldwide – among which the CMCC Foundation – promotes the development of new marine forecasting systems around the globe, along with the improvement of the existing ones.
The United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and its Expert Team on Operational Ocean Forecasting Systems (ETOOFS) released a Guide on “Implementing Operational Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting Systems”.
The guide provides an overview of the value chain of an operational ocean forecasting system as well as international standards and best practices for setting up such a service. Weighing in at 400 pages, the guide is a unique and comprehensive reference document for the operational ocean modeling community. It covers key areas of operational ocean forecasting system, focusing on their current state of the art as well as their future developments.
Initiated at the request of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the guide was funded by GOOS and Mercator Ocean International. It was produced thanks to the cooperation of 51 institutions from 18 countries worldwide, among wich the CMCC Foundation. 80 authors have participated in the writing, under the coordination of the editors Enrique Alvarez Fanjul, Stefania Ciliberti, and Pierre Bahurel.
CMCC contribution to the report include the coordination of Chapter 5 – “Circulation Modelling” by Stefania Ciliberti, who also contributed to Chapters 4 – “Architecture of ocean monitoring and forecasting systems” and 12 – “Challenges and future perspectives in ocean predictions”. Moreover, Giovanni Coppini, Director of the CMCC Division on Ocean Predictions and Applications, coordinated Chapter 11 – “Downstream applications: from data to products”. CMCC authors also include Simona Masina, Director of the CMCC Division on Ocean Modelling and Data Assimilation (Chapter 5) and CMCC researchers Svitlana Liubartseva and Gianandrea Mannarini (Chapter 11).
The guide intends to provide inspiration and guidelines to professionals worldwide. If this is achieved, it is expected to foster a generation of information to support decision-making processes; and thus, to advocate for a more informed and sustainable relationship with our ocean.
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