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JEAN-FRANÇOIS MINSTER
preoperational prediction systems are being implemented. This note
discusses some general issues of this development.
2.
Open ocean operational oceanography in France
The CNES, NASA Jason-1, and its Jason-2 extension: Jason-1 was
launched on December 7, 2001, on the same orbit as Topex/Poseidon. It
carries an altimetry payload derived from Topex/Poseidon. The Jason-1
commissioning phase was successfully completed on 4 March 2002. Jason
Operational Sensor Data Records are delivered within three hours.
An international effort is being made in the operational high precision
satellite altimetry programme, with the recent decision of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat) to
contribute to Jason-2. Furthermore, new technological developments, such
as Altika, are on their way.
Coriolis: Coriolis is the French contribution to ARGO (an international
programme that calls for the deployment of 3,000 free drifting profiling
floats distributed over the global oceans by 2006). It includes instrument
development, deployment and a near real-time global scale data centre. In
the year 2001 there were data sets from XBT, CTD, and moorings providing
global coverage with 165 190 profiles (T, S).
Prediction systems: MERCATOR is the preoperational open ocean currentprediction system which has been implemented in France. The partners in
this project are CNRS (the French national scientific research centre),
METEO-FRANCE (the French national weather service), CNES (the French
space agency), SHOM (the French Navy’s hydrography & oceanography
department), Ifremer, and IRD (the French development research institute),
and their goal is to progressively develop an operational capacity to analyse
and predict the global ocean, through assimilation of near real-time satellite
and in situ data into an ocean model. Customers of the system will be public
services, civil security, defence, and commercial applications of
oceanography. MERCATOR already provides weekly bulletins predicting
the state of the ocean for the next two weeks, including outputs on the
temperature and salinity of ocean currents at various depths, and sea surface
height at a 5 km resolution in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea
and at a lower resolution globally. It is a contribution to the Global Ocean
Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE).
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MINSTER
preoperational prediction systems are being implemented. This note
discusses some general issues of this development.
2.
Open ocean operational oceanography in France
The CNES, NASA Jason-1, and its Jason-2 extension: Jason-1 was
launched on December 7, 2001, on the same orbit as Topex/Poseidon. It
carries an altimetry payload derived from Topex/Poseidon. The Jason-1
commissioning phase was successfully completed on 4 March 2002. Jason
Operational Sensor Data Records are delivered within three hours.
An international effort is being made in the operational high precision
satellite altimetry programme, with the recent decision of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat) to
contribute to Jason-2. Furthermore, new technological developments, such
as Altika, are on their way.
Coriolis: Coriolis is the French contribution to ARGO (an international
programme that calls for the deployment of 3,000 free drifting profiling
floats distributed over the global oceans by 2006). It includes instrument
development, deployment and a near real-time global scale data centre. In
the year 2001 there were data sets from XBT, CTD, and moorings providing
global coverage with 165 190 profiles (T, S).
Prediction systems: MERCATOR is the preoperational open ocean currentprediction system which has been implemented in France. The partners in
this project are CNRS (the French national scientific research centre),
METEO-FRANCE (the French national weather service), CNES (the French
space agency), SHOM (the French Navy’s hydrography & oceanography
department), Ifremer, and IRD (the French development research institute),
and their goal is to progressively develop an operational capacity to analyse
and predict the global ocean, through assimilation of near real-time satellite
and in situ data into an ocean model. Customers of the system will be public
services, civil security, defence, and commercial applications of
oceanography. MERCATOR already provides weekly bulletins predicting
the state of the ocean for the next two weeks, including outputs on the
temperature and salinity of ocean currents at various depths, and sea surface
height at a 5 km resolution in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea
and at a lower resolution globally. It is a contribution to the Global Ocean
Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE).