1. Could you confirm electronic signatures are allowable for tender submission, or whether actual signatures are required on the paper submissions.
We can’t reply: this is too specific and in principle could vary from one tender regulation to the other. Please use CMEMStenders@mercator-ocean.fr and refer to the tender you’re working on.
2. Can you elaborate on activities that you envision to extend over actions already done user in MyOcean precursor actions?
Compared to activities already done in the MyOcean pilot service, different activities are extended in CMEMS to increase the value for users. For instance the consolidation of operational skills and performances, and the addition of wave products in the service portfolio before the end of 2017
Other extensions of Service will be decided from user consultation and feedback (after user requirement analysis) and from specific actions undertaken through Framework Service Elements (Service Evolution and User Uptake). Service Evolution and User Uptake actions will be managed through open calls.
3. Is CMEMS providing AIS (Automatic Identification System) data ?
The CMEMS is not providing AIS data.
The CMEMS Service deals with marine environment, i.e. ocean variables (physical, biogeochemical), and not vessel positioning or monitoring.
4. Is CMEMS accessible through APIs ?
The pilot project for CMEMS (MyOcean) is currently providing visualisation and data access capabilities based on international standards (e.g. OGC) allowing machine to machine data access. Image processing is also provided through standard ncWMS protocols.
However CMEMS Services will have to be extended for improving access services through APIs
5. It’s a detail but can we agree on the acronym to use : CMS, CEMS, CMEMS ? please note that CMS stands for Centre de Météorologie Spatiale for Météo-France.
CMEMS is the acronym corresponding to the full official name “Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service” and shall be used by default and in all official communication. When the Copernicus context is set without ambiguity (e.g. during technical meetings, or in some developments of long technical documents) , we might use the usual name CMS for “Copernicus Marine Service” or “the Marine Service”.
6. Could you elaborate on the role of the Framework Service Elements and how they are envisioned to improve the service in terms of its evolution?
The “core service elements” form the operational production & service chain: their role is to guaranty to user a reliable and performant CMEMS service for ocean data and products. They are composed of central service elements and distributed production centres.
Complementarily to this operational core, the CMEMS implementation considers “framework service elements” to foster with the help of a wider community the design of “service evolution” and the “user uptake”. If the priority of the 1st semester of 2015 is on the core service elements to ensure service continuity to users, it is also planned to organize stakeholders’ consultation to design the framework service elements implementation roadmap.
7. will be possible for you to expand on the task exectuted by mercator specially on how will be the product quality steps and evaluation?
Product Quality tasks are routinely undertaken by Production Centers in their operational activities, so that the quality of products is routinely monitored and that standard statistics are computed and reported.
Besides operational activities, cross-cutting activities (common to all Production Centres) related to Product Quality are set up in order to define common methodologies, metrics, indicators, etc. Mercator Ocean is undertaking the management of this cross-cutting activity so that common methodologies are implemented in a consistent way through all Production Centres
8. A significant difficulty we are having is separating the activities that sit in the cross-cutting and those that can be considered operational activities. It is clear that some of the cross-cutting activities listed have a production component (e.g. the Ocean State Report and some aspects of PQ). The position I am taking in writing a bid is that the component of the cross-cutting activity that involves communication with CMS central functions or across to the other projects is part of the cross-cutting activity, but the aspects of production that support that (e.g. routine, i.e. annual, production of imagery or product quality statistics) are part of the operations work package. Could you confirm this approach is the one you are expecting
If the question is specific to one of the ongoing tenders, please use CMEMStenders@mercator-ocean.fr.
Regarding an overall approach, this is described in the Technical Annex of the CMEMS delegation agreement and is indeed very similar to what you understand: the cross-cutting tasks are mainly related to coordination, when production tasks are by default distributed in the different production centres.