Abstract. Since 19 October 2016, and in the framework of Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), Mercator Ocean has delivered real-time daily services (weekly analyses and daily 10-day forecasts) with a new global 1∕12∘ high-resolution (eddy-resolving) monitoring and forecasting system. The model component is the NEMO platform driven at the surface by the IFS ECMWF atmospheric analyses and forecasts. Observations are assimilated by means of a reduced-order Kalman filter with a three-dimensional multivariate modal decomposition of the background error. Along-track altimeter data, satellite sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, and in situ temperature and salinity vertical profiles are jointly assimilated to estimate the initial conditions for numerical ocean forecasting. A 3D-VAR scheme provides a correction for the slowly evolving large-scale biases in temperature and salinity. This paper describes the recent updates applied to the system and discusses the importance of fine tuning an ocean monitoring and forecasting system. It details more particularly the impact of the initialization, the correction of precipitation, the assimilation of climatological temperature and salinity in the deep ocean, the construction of the background error covariance and the adaptive tuning of observation error on increasing the realism of the analysis and forecasts. The scientific assessment of the ocean estimations are illustrated with diagnostics over some particular years, assorted with time series over the time period 2007–2016. The overall impact of the integration of all updates on the product quality is also discussed, highlighting a gain in performance and reliability of the current global monitoring and forecasting system compared to its previous version.

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The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Ocean State Report (OSR) provides an annual report of the state of the global ocean and European regional seas for policy and decision-makers with the additional aim of increasing general public awareness about the status of, and changes in, the marine environment. The CMEMS OSR draws on expert analysis and provides a 3-D view (through reanalysis systems), a view from above (through remote-sensing data) and a direct view of the interior (through in situ measurements) of the global ocean and the European regional seas. The report is based on the unique CMEMS monitoring capabilities of the blue (hydrography, currents), white (sea ice) and green (e.g. Chlorophyll) marine environment. This first issue of the CMEMS OSR provides guidance on Essential Variables, large-scale changes and specific events related to the physical ocean state over the period 1993–2015. Principal findings of this first CMEMS OSR show a significant increase in global and regional sea levels, thermosteric expansion, ocean heat content, sea surface temperature and Antarctic sea ice extent and conversely a decrease in Arctic sea ice extent during the 1993–2015 period. During the year 2015 exceptionally strong large-scale changes were monitored such as, for example, a strong El Niño Southern Oscillation, a high frequency of extreme storms and sea level events in specific regions in addition to areas of high sea level and harmful algae blooms. At the same time, some areas in the Arctic Ocean experienced exceptionally low sea ice extent and temperatures below average were observed in the North Atlantic Ocean

(2015) Recent progress in performance evaluations and near real-time assessment of operational ocean products, Journal of Operational Oceanography, 8:sup2, s221-s238,