Operational Oceanography and European Environment Agency indicators

• Main Authors: Coppini, G., Nadia, P., Vladyslav, L., Francois, S., Gilles, L., Stephanie, G., Isabelle, P., Johnny, J., Claudia, F., Marina, T., Salvatore, M., Peter, L., Rosalia, S., Simone, C., Gianluca, V.
• Other Authors: Coppini, G.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Bologna, Bologna, Italia, Nadia, P.; Università di Bologna, Italy, Vladyslav, L.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Bologna, Bologna, Italia, Francois, S.; Mercator Océan, France, Gilles, L.; CLS, France, Stephanie, G.; CLS, France, Isabelle, P.; CLS, France, Johnny, J.; Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Norway, Claudia, F.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Bologna, Bologna, Italia, Marina, T.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Bologna, Bologna, Italia, Salvatore, M.; ENEA, Italy, Peter, L.; Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie-BSH,Germany, Rosalia, S.; 8Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e Del Clima (CNR-ISAC), Italy, Simone, C.; 8Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e Del Clima (CNR-ISAC), Italy, Gianluca, V.; 8Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e Del Clima (CNR-ISAC), Italy, Hans, D.; EUROGOOS, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Bologna, Bologna, Italia, Università di Bologna, Italy, Mercator Océan, France, CLS, France, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Norway, ENEA, Italy, Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie-BSH,Germany, 8Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e Del Clima (CNR-ISAC), Italy, Hans, D., EUROGOOS
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: European Commission 2008
• Subjects: Indicators; Operational Oceanography; 03. Hydrosphere::03.01. General::03.01.05. Operational oceanography; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2122/4693

Operational Oceanography (OO) emerged to a stage of development that allows the design and development of services such as the routine production of environmental and climate indicators for specific users. Indicators are synthetic indices of environmental changes at various time scales. The indicators are often used by international environmental agencies and national directorates like the European Environment Agency (EEA web page on indicators: http://themes.eea.europa.eu/indicators/) and by the regional Conventions (i.e. Helcom webpage on indicators: http://www.helcom.fi/environment2/ifs/en_GB/cover/ ). In this paper we have carried out an analysis on the possible improvements of existing indicator reporting in use by EEA and on the development of new indicators based on OO products. The list of indicators includes: Temperature, Chlorophyll-a (from ocean colour), Ocean Currents and Transport, Salinity, Transparency, Sea Level, Sea Ice and Density. A critical analysis has been carried out to identify the relevance of the above mentioned indicators for EU policies, their spatial and temporal coverage, their accuracy and their availability. The Temperature and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) products are the most suitable for an indicator development test phase. In particular the OO Chl-a product, deduced from satellite data, will be able to contribute to the further development of the EEA Chl-a indicator that is based on in-situ measurements (CSI023). Sea Level and Sea Ice products are also robust quantities for climate indicators. For the above mentioned indicators a development test phase has been undertaken in 2008 within the European Topic Center for Water (ETC-W) and BOSS4GMES (http://www.mersea.eu.org/Indicators-with-B4G.html) projects. Ocean Currents and Transports and Salinity products appear less mature for the development of new indicators at pan-European level because their connection with environmental aspects are less recognised in all European marine areas, to be noted that Transport derived indicators are ...