The French Operational Oceanography Centre

Since January 2001, Mercator Océan has been developing and running operational systems (based on the MERCATOR System) able to describe, to monitor and to forecast the ocean at any location in the world, from the deep ocean to the surface.

Mercator Océan offers high level products and services to users thanks to its complex ocean forecast 3D models as well as its skilful human expertise for model assessment and ocean forecast.

Created in 2002 as a Public Interest Group (GIP), Mercator Océan is now a non-profit company, owned by 5 Major French Agencies - All founding members-:

  • CNRS (National Centre of the Scientific Research)
  • IFREMER (French Research Institute for Sea operations)
  • IRD (Development Research Institute)
  • METEO FRANCE (French National Weather Service)
  • SHOM (Oceanographic Department of the French Navy)
CNRS
Ifremer
SHOM
Logo IRD
MeteoFrance
Founding member of Mercator Océan, the French Spatial Agency (CNES) is today a key-partner.

The company provides Ocean information for National, European and International users in charge of policies in regards to:

  • Protection of the Environment
  • Marine Safety
  • Security
  • Marine Resources
  • Sustainable Development

Mercator Ocean also provides scientific communities with Products and Services needed for their Research activities.

The private sector - e.g. commercial applications in the oceanographic domain- also shows interests in our 3D digital products and benefits from Mercator Océan's expertise.

Operational Oceanography leader in Europe

logo_myocean
Operational Oceanography has been acknowledged by the European Commission as one of the 3 key-domains covered by its GMES program (" Global Monitoring for Environment and Security". As a consequence, the European Commission co-funds a 3-year-project called "MyOcean" in the 7th Framework Program for European Research and Development. This project is dedicated to the preparation of the GMES Marine Service implementation for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting and is coordinated by Mercator Océan from its start in April 2009.

MyOcean involves 61 partners from 29 countries: major centres in Europe involved in ocean operational monitoring & forecasting and partners from the European maritime community. MyOcean Service gives a free access and provides state-of-the-art information available on the Global Ocean (worldwide coverage) and on European seas, based on the combination of space and in situ observations, and their assimilation into 4D models (including the Time frame) such as: Temperature, salinity, currents, sea ice, sea level, wind and biogeochemical parameters

The 4 major MyOcean's areas of benefits are: Marine Safety, Marine Resources, Coastal and Marine Environment and Weather/Climate and seasonal forecasting.