38 G.M.R. Manzella and MFS-vas Group
of data managers and data analysts toward the development of more and more
complex and comprehensive Marine Information Systems.
An important effort of the data managers is nowadays dedicated to the management of real time data, as part of a wider operational ocean/coastal forecasting system of the ocean circulation and ecosystem variability. The successes of various
STORAGE
GRAPHICAL
PRESENTATION
ATAANALYSIS
GRAPIDCAL
PRESENTATION
DATAIINFORMATION DISSEMINATION
SCIENTIFIC
ADMINISTRATION
PUBBLIC
(HIGH)
(POOR)
(VERYPOOR)
Fig. 3.1 Former Data Banking, analysis and dissemination system. The new data were
compared with the historical data, then archived for internal use. The level of dissemination
was high to the scientific community and very poor to the general pubblic.
research programmes, such as the Tropical Oceans Global Atmosphere (e.g. Hayes
et al., 1991) and World Ocean Circulation Experiment (e.g. Schott et al., 2000)
have demonstrated the feasibility of global operational observing and forecasting
systems. Operational coastal activities are being set up in limited marine areas
(Malone et al., 1999). In the Mediterranean a basin wide operational system has