Assessing the Impact of the Upstream Observing Network on the MyOcean Catalogue of Products
crosnier, laurence¹; Claverie, Vincent^2
1Mercator ocean, FRANCE; ²CLS, FRANCE

After data acquisition from the ground segment of the space-based (with processing levels L1 and L2) and in situ networks as well as acquisition of atmospheric forcing data (winds, temperatures, fluxes) from National Meteorological Services, MyOcean processes these data into quality-controlled datasets (with processing levels L3 and L4) at Thematic Data Assembly centers (sea surface temperature, ocean colour, sea level, sea ice, winds and in-situ data) and runs numerical ocean models in near real time assimilating the above thematic data to generate analyses and forecasts for the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Atlantic European North West shelf Ocean, Atlantic Iberian Biscay Irish Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Global ocean. Reprocessing and reanalysis are also performed. MyOcean products are available through the Interactive Catalogue provided on the www.myocean.eu web portal. The MyOcean catalogue of products displays the following parameters: Ocean Temperature, Ocean Salinity, Ocean Currents, Sea Ice, Sea Level, Ocean Winds, Ocean Optics, Ocean Chemistry, Ocean Biology and Ocean Chlorophyll.

MyOcean has set up a data flow monitoring system which is able to monitor all the interfaces used within MyOcean in order to acquire the ground segment of the space-based data, the in situ networks data as well as the atmospheric forcing data (winds, temperatures, fluxes) from National Meteorological Services. Moreover, the internal interfaces used within MyOcean are also monitored. Hence, MyOcean is now able to assess the impact of the upstream observing network on all the MyOcean products. ESA is currently providing MyOcean with all its current satellite missions among which RADARSAT2/SAR, CRYOSAT-2/LRA. We will show the impact of the loss of the ENVISAT/ASAR in April 2012 on the MyOcean service. We will also show the current use of Radarsat-2, Cosmo SkyMed and TerraSAR-X in order to build the MyOcean SeaIce products. Finally, we will illustrate the impact of the CRYOSAT-2/LRA on the MyOcean Sea Level products.

ESA is developing five new missions called Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the Copernicus (formerly called GMES) program. The Sentinel missions are based on a constellation of two satellites providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services. Sentinel3 dedicated to the ocean as well as Sentinel1 are the two most important missions for MyOcean. The Sentinels, among other satellites, will allow building new products, sustaining existing ones as well as improving the quality of products containing the following parameters: Ocean Temperature thanks to the SLSTR sensor onboard Sentinel3 which will provide a steady record of Sea Surface Temperature; Ocean Currents and Sea Level thanks to the altimeter sensor on board Sentinel3 which will monitor the global ocean sea level; Sea Ice thanks to the SAR sensor onboard Sentinel1; Ocean Winds thanks to the ASAR scatter meter sensor onboard Sentinel1 allowing to compiled maps of sea surface wind patterns; Ocean Optics and Ocean Chlorophyll thanks to the OLCI spectrometer sensor onboard Sentinel3 which can identify phytoplankton or pollution levels from the slightest shift in water colour. We will show the impact of the Sentinel1 and 3 on the MyOcean catalogue and service.

The sustainability, operationality and quality of the MyOcean products are depending strongly on the current and future satellite missions planned for launch in 2013 and later. The MyOcean operational service can be maintained only if the Sentinel service is itself operational and sustained on a long time period.