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PROVIDING DATA SERVICESPROVIDING DATA SERVICESFOR THE MEDITERRANEAN FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN

AND BLACK SEASAND BLACK SEAS

EC-MAST Concerted Action (MAS3-CT98-0174/ERBIC20-CT98-0103)

CESUM International Conference,Varna, 12-18 Octobre 2003

C. MAILLARD, E. BALOPOULOS, N. MIKHAILOV, M. FICHAUT, G. MAUDIRE, M-J. GARCIA, B. MANCA, A. SUVOROV, A. GIORGETTI, A. IONA, M. RIXEN and MEDAR Group

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MEDAR GROUPMEDAR GROUP

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Rationale and BackgroundRationale and BackgroundLong time series of marine observations are required for many scientific and technical studies, especially to follow up changes in the sea waters, to manage living and non-living marine resources and to make predictions. Therefore, the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) has reviewed key parameters that should be provided with known precision. Such data are collected by scientific teams of many countries, but in most cases they remain dispersed in heterogeneous formats and systems. Their access is difficult, and due the lack of appropriate archiving, they are frequently in danger to be lost.The IOC “Global Ocean Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR)” programme has been launched to rescue and disseminate the dispersed data. Two pilot projects MODB and MEDATLAS (1994-1997) initiated the Mediterranean and Black Sea regional module of GODAR. As a result, an important database of vertical temperature and salinity profiles was released for public use.A following EU concerted action MEDAR/MEDATLAS-II (MAS3-CT98-0174 & ERBIC20-CT98-0103), was launched in 1998 with the overall objective to make available a comprehensive data product of multi-disciplinary in-situ data and information in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, through a wide co-operation of the bordering countries.

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MEDAR OBJECTIVES1. To compile and safeguard historical data of core basic

parameters:1. influencing the biodiversity and the primary production and

necessary for the modellisation of the region; 2. for which sufficient preliminary knowledge of the distributions

were available to allow quality checks to be performed.2. To develop an integrated database by:

using a common exchange format; implementing a common protocol for quality checking.

3. To compute gridded climatological statistics for all the parameters.

4. To publish and disseminate the resulting observed and analysed data and the meta-data.

5. To build capacity and enhance communication between scientists and data managers.

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Tasks OrganizationTasks Organization

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DATA BASE CONTENTDATA BASE CONTENT(PARAMETERS)

Parameter Nb of Profiles

Parameter Nb of Profiles

Temperature

284 371 Nitrite 10 508

Salinity 118 009 Ammonium 5 239

Oxygen 44 928 Chlorophyll 4 672

Phosphate 20 761 Alkalinity 2 548

Silicate 15 920 Total Phosphorus

2 381

PH 14 512 H2S 1 843

Nitrate 10 572 Total Nitrogen

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DATA BASE CONTENTDATA BASE CONTENT(DATA TYPE)

Data type Nb of Profiles in MEDATLAS 2002

(MEDATLAS 1997)

MBT, XBT Thermistor

chains

161 877(156 503)

CTD 35 679(15 778)

Bottle Casts 88 323(33 977)

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TEMPERATURETEMPERATURE

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SALINITYSALINITY

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DISSOLVED OXYGENDISSOLVED OXYGEN

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PHOSPHATEPHOSPHATE

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CHLOROPHYLLCHLOROPHYLL

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QUALITY CHECKSQCO : Automatic check of the formatQC1 : Automatic and visual check of the headers QC2 : Automatic and visual check of the data points

a quality flag to each numerical value (GTSPP flag scale)

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DATA QUALITYDATA QUALITY

GOOD FALSEDOUBTFULOUT OF STATISTICS NO QC

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CLIMATOLOGYMethodology

Computation of Climatological Analysis by Variational Inverse Model (VIM) algorithms

Computation made on finite elements and then re-interpolated on a regular grid (0.2 degrees in Latitude and Longitude), with smaller scales for local computations

T, S and bio-chemical climatology reviewed by regional experts and modellers

http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/Medar

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CLIMATOLOGY - CLIMATOLOGY - ResultsResults

Selected numerical fields depending on data availability:

Annual , seasonal and monthly climatology Temperature, Salinity

Annual and seasonalOxygen, Silicate, Phosphate Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the Black Sea

Annual onlyNitrate, Nitrite, pH, Ammonium, Alkalinity, Chlorophyll

No climatologyTotal Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen

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CLIMATOLOGY – CLIMATOLOGY – ResultsResults2500 horizontal maps, vertical sections and stations

location SOME EXAMPLESSOME EXAMPLES

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SALINITY at 10m SALINITY at 10m DepthDepth

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VERTICAL SECTIONSVERTICAL SECTIONS and surface zoom

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CD-ROM 4: climatology Black Sea + E-Mediterranean

CD-ROM 3: ClimatologyGlobal + W-Mediterranean

DATA PRODUCTDATA PRODUCT(A set of 4 CD-ROMs)

CD-ROM 2: DatabaseObserved data + SELMED interface for extraction (according to various criteria), interpolation and visualization - export formats: MEDATLAS, CSV or ODV.

CD-ROM 1: Documentation on the project and its resultsCruise inventorySoftware

QCmedarODV

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Conclusion 1: Present Conclusion 1: Present ServicesServices

MEDAR network disseminate MEDATLAS 2002, presently the best available integrated data base for the Mediterranean & BLack Seas. It provides also further data services:Extraction and distribution of regional or thematics subsets, to answer specific requests, Implementation of the common protocols and practices for data formatting and checking for quality,Additional services at the national levels: continuous compilation, quality checking with feedback to source scientists, perennial archiving and dissemination of new data.

Visit our distributed web site: www.ifremer.fr/medar

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Conclusion 2: Further needs to Further needs to meetmeetDirect internet access to the more complete available data sets :

historical data + data released in recent projects including real time data - Use of up-to-date communication technology for data disseminationIncrease in quantity and quality the data and products availability such as estimates of the mean, decadal, seasonal, monthly statistics at basin, regional and shelf scales – requires a large quantity of data of good qualityImprove and document the QC standards and protocols, especially for bio-chemicals and productsIncrease efficiency through enhanced international cooperation & capacity building activities - requires more portable software, meetings and training coursesIncrease of the public awareness on the data heritage

New concerted actions in preparation: MEDBLACK-ODN, SEA-DATANET

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