The improvements of the ships of opportunity program in MFS-TEP

Abstract

Abstract. The Ships Of Opportunity Program in the Mediterranean Sea was established at the end of 1999, in the framework of the Mediterranean Forecasting System – Pilot Project (MFS-PP). Many improvements have been made in data collection, transmission and management. Calibration of selected XBTs and a comparison of XBTs vs. CTDs during some research cruises have assured the quality of the data. Transmission now allows receiving data in full resolution by using GSM or satellite telecommunication services; management is offering access to high quality data and view services. The effects of technological and methodological improvements in the observing system are assessed in terms of capability to represent the most important circulation features. The improved methodologies have been tested during the Mediterranean Forecasting System – Toward Environmental Prediction (MFS-TEP) – Targeted Operational Period (MFS-TOP), lasting from September 2004 to February 2005. In spite of the short period of measurements, several important aspects of the Mediterranean Sea circulation have been verified, such as eddies and gyres in the various sub-basins, and dense water formation processes in some of them (vertical homogeneous profiles of about 13°C down to ~800 m in the Provençal, and of about 14.9°C down to ~300 m in the Levantine have allowed defining an index of dense water formation).

Global Warming and Mass Mortalities of Benthic Invertebrates in the Mediterranean Sea

“…Data range from 1889 to 2000, and were collected with bottles, Mechanical Bathy-Thermographs (MBT), eXpendable Bathy-Thermographs (XBT), and Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD). MEDAR/MEDATLAS profiles were integrated with two other datasets: CTD and XBT data (covering the period 2000–2013) of the World Ocean Database 2013 (WOD13) [39] and XBT measurements (covering the period 1999–2011) of the Mediterranean Forecasting System-Voluntary Observing Ship program (MFS-VOS) [40] .…”

Mediterranean Forecasting System: forecast and analysis assessment through skill scores

“…The observations used in this work are the independent data from moored buoys and the quasi-independent observations from Argo and XBT which are assimilated by the system and described respectively in Poulain et al (2007) and Manzella et al (2007).…”

Mediterranean Sea large-scale low-frequency ocean variability and water mass formation rates from 1987 to 2007: A retrospective analysis

“…The in-situ data are composed of temperature vertical profiles down to 700 metres provided by a ship-of-opportunity programme (Manzella et al 2007) and temperature and salinity profiles down to 700 and 2000 metres implemented by the Medargo program (Poulain et al 2007). The real-time satellite measurements consist of along-track Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) from altimetry (Pinardi et al 2003).…”