Assessment of AtlantOS impact

Assessment of the impact of AtlantOS in situ observing system for Copernicus Marine Service and seasonal predictio

The Importance of High-resolution Satellite Observations In Addition to In Situ Observations

<p><strong>Wed 18 Oct 2023, 12:00 - 14:00 UTC: Exploring Ocean-Climate Dynamics: Observations, Collaboration, and Policy Implications </strong></p><p>At Ocean Best Practices (OBPS), a focus session.</p&gt

CHANGES IN THE SEASONAL CYCLE OF SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND PHYTOPLANKTON IN NORTH-EASTERN ATLANTIC

participantThe effects of climate change have been observed in many aspects of the Earth System, especially in the ocean. However, the response of the physical seasonal cycle to climate change in the North Sea and the northern (NE) Atlantic has not been well studied. We used a global sea surface temperature data set (HadISST) with a length of 140 years to describe the long-term variations in the targeted area. The seasonality of sea surface temperature (SST) was represented by the temperature difference between August and March. Nine locations were chosen to examine the differences between open ocean and shelf sea areas. Preliminary results show that in all regions, the seasonality has varied on a multi-decadal scale for about a hundred years after 1870. Then it increased rapidly in the period 1990-2010. The dramatic changes since late 1980s and early 1990s occurred when regime shifts were recorded in these areas. Open ocean regions display similar variations as the shelf sea areas, but with smaller amplitudes. The four seasons have distinct variation patterns, and winter pattern seem to be more related to NAO compared to other seasons. This is likely to be because wind plays a more dominant role in winter than in other seasons. Future work will be to examine the seasonal cycle of other physical parameters like salinity and mixed layer depth, to examine in detail the decadal variations in phytoplankton abundance and species composition, and ultimately to explain the influence of seasonally-varying physical processes on phytoplankton abundance

The Current Configuration of the OSTIA System for Operational Production of Foundation Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Concentration Analyses

The Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) system generates global, daily, gap-filled foundation sea surface temperature (SST) fields from satellite data and in situ observations. The SSTs have uncertainty information provided with them and an ice concentration (IC) analysis is also produced. Additionally, a global, hourly diurnal skin SST product is output each day. The system is run in near real time to produce data for use in applications such as numerical weather prediction. Data production is monitored routinely and outputs are available from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS; marine.copernicus.eu). As an operational product, the OSTIA system is continuously under development. For example, since the original descriptor paper was published, the underlying data assimilation scheme that is used to generate the foundation SST analyses has been updated. Various publications have described these changes but a full description is not available in a single place. This technical note focuses on the production of the foundation SST and IC analyses by OSTIA and aims to provide a comprehensive description of the current system configuration

Requirements for an Integrated in situ Atlantic Ocean Observing System From Coordinated Observing System Simulation Experiments

A coordinated effort, based on observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs), has been carried out by four European ocean forecasting centers for the first time, in order to provide insights on the present and future design of the in situ Atlantic Ocean observing system from a monitoring and forecasting perspective. This multi-system approach is based on assimilating synthetic data sets, obtained by sub-sampling in space and time using an eddy-resolving unconstrained simulation, named the Nature Run. To assess the ability of a given Atlantic Ocean observing system to constrain the ocean model state, a set of assimilating experiments were performed using four global eddy-permitting systems. For each set of experiments, different designs of the in situ observing system were assimilated, such as implementing a global drifter array equipped with a thermistor chain down to 150 m depth or extending a part of the global Argo array in the deep ocean. While results from the four systems show similarities and differences, the comparison of the experiments with the Nature Run, generally demonstrates a positive impact of the different extra observation networks on the temperature and salinity fields. The spread of the multi-system simulations, combined with the sensitivity of each system to the evaluated observing networks, allowed us to discuss the robustness of the results and their dependence on the specific analysis system. By helping define and test future observing systems from an integrated observing system view, the present work is an initial step toward better-coordinated initiatives supporting the evolution of the ocean observing system and its integration within ocean monitoring and forecasting systems

From Observation to Information and Users: The Copernicus Marine Service Perspective

The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) provides regular and systematic reference information on the physical and biogeochemical ocean and sea-ice state for the global ocean and the European regional seas. CMEMS serves a wide range of users (more than 15,000 users are now registered to the service) and applications. Observations are a fundamental pillar of the CMEMS value-added chain that goes from observation to information and users. Observations are used by CMEMS Thematic Assembly Centres (TACs) to derive high-level data products and by CMEMS Monitoring and Forecasting Centres (MFCs) to validate and constrain their global and regional ocean analysis and forecasting systems. This paper presents an overview of CMEMS, its evolution, and how the value of in situ and satellite observations is increased through the generation of high-level products ready to be used by downstream applications and services. The complementary nature of satellite and in situ observations is highlighted. Long-term perspectives for the development of CMEMS are described and implications for the evolution of the in situ and satellite observing systems are outlined. Results from Observing System Evaluations (OSEs) and Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) illustrate the high dependencies of CMEMS systems on observations. Finally future CMEMS requirements for both satellite and in situ observations are detailed