ICTS OceanBit, an international Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System based in
the Balearic Islands: the impact of new information infrastructures in understanding and
forecasting the coastal ocean
Joaquín Tintoré (1,2) and the ICTS OceanBit Team
International Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System, Balearic Islands ICTS (MICINN-Govern
Balear). Parc Bit, Naorte, 2ªp. pta. 3. Palma de Mallorca. Spain. http://oceanbit.org/. jtintore@uib.es
(2)
Dept. Marine Technologies, Operational Oceanography and Sustainability, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Mallorca.
Spain. http://imedea.uib-csic.es/tmoos/
(1)
ABSTRACT
New monitoring technologies are being progressively
implemented in coastal ocean observatories. For
example, gliders allow high-resolution sampling
showing the existence of new features, such as
submesoscale eddies with intense vertical motions that
significantly affect upper ocean biogeochemical
exchanges, an issue of worldwide relevance in the
context of climate change. These new observatories,
such as IMOS, OOI, OOI (CI), IOOS, VENUS,
NEPTUNE, POSEIDON, COSYNA among others, are
delivering new insight into coastal ocean variability,
which in turn will trigger new theoretical developments,
increasing our understanding of coastal and nearshore
processes and contributing to a more science based and
sustainable management of the coastal area.
OceanBit is one of such systems, a Coastal Observing
and Forecasting System, a new facility of facilities,
open to international access. It is a multi-platform
distributed and integrated system that will provide
streams of oceanographic data and modelling services to
support operational oceanography in a Mediterranean
and international framework, therefore contributing to
the needs of marine and coastal research in the context
of global change. In line with EuroGOOS, operational
oceanography is here understood in a wide sense,
including both systematic long-term measurements of
the seas and their interpretation and dissemination, and
also the sustained supply of multidisciplinary data to
cover the needs of a wide range of scientific research
and societal priorities. This will allow a quantitative
increase in our understanding of key questions on
oceans and climate change, coastal ocean processes,
ecosystem variability, etc.
1
MISSION, VISION AND OBJECTIVES
OceanBit’s mission is to develop an observing and
forecasting system, a scientific and technological
infrastructure which will provide free, open, quality
controlled and timely streams of data.
The vision is to advance on the understanding of
physical and multidisciplinary processes and their non
linear interactions, to detect and quantify changes in
coastal systems, to understand the mechanism that
regulate them and to forecast their evolution and/or
adaptation under, for example, different IPCC scenarios.
We envision becoming an internationally recognised
coastal observing and forecasting system, contributing
to scientific excellence, technology transfer and
dissemination and also capable of responding to society
needs.
OceanBit’s objectives are driven by international
scientific priorities and state of the art technology, and
also by specific interests from the Spanish and Balearic
Islands society. More specifically: (1) to contribute to
addressing and responding to international scientific,
technological and strategic challenges for operational
oceanography in the coastal ocean and (2) to enhance
operational oceanography research and technology
activities being carried out in the Balearic Islands.
2
SITES: WHERE AND WHY?
OceanBit activities will be mostly (but not only) centred
in the western Mediterranean, with focus in the Balearic
Islands and adjacent sub-basins (specifically Algerian
and Alborán/Gibraltar) and covering the nearshore, the
coastal ocean and the blue open ocean waters and their
associated processes.
OceanBit profits from the strategic position of the
Balearic Islands, at the Atlantic/Mediterranean
transition, one of the ‘hot spots’ in world’s oceans
research. Additionally the semi-enclosed nature of this
sea offers an ideal reduced scale ocean laboratory,
where processes such as thermohaline circulation, deep
convection, shelf/slope exchanges, mesoscale and
submesoscale dynamics, coastal interactions can be
studied at smaller scales than in other oceanic regions
(internal Rossby Radius of order 10 km). Thus physical
mechanisms can be more easily monitored in this ‘ocean
basin’, contributing to the advancement of knowledge of
physical interactions and biogeochemical coupling at
nearshore, local, sub-basin and global scales. In this
context, coastal ocean research and technology
development in the Balearic Islands over the last 20
1
years has contributed to the study and understanding of
different oceanographic problems of worldwide interest.
international peer reviewed process in response to open
annual international calls.
3
The Glider Facility is one of the examples of already
existing pilot facilities, with four Slocum WebbTeledyne gliders in operation since 2006. Recent results
obtained in an area such as the Alborán Sea in July 2008
and characterised by very intense currents that reached
up to 100 cm/s, combining glider and altimetry data,
show new ways to address key scientific questions
related to vertical motions associated with mesoscale
and submesoscale eddies and the associated
biogeochemical exchanges in the worlds oceans.
PRINCIPLES
OceanBit’s guiding principles are: scientific and
technological excellence through peer review, science,
technology and society driven objectives, support to
R&D activities in the Balearic Islands, integrated,
coordinated multiplatform, multidisciplinary and
sustained monitoring, partnership between institutions,
and free, open and quality controlled data streams, with
data in adherence to scientific community standards.
4
STRUCTURE
OceanBit’s structure is original in that apart from the
observing, modelling and data centre facilities that
respond to science driven objectives, it will also need to
address technology and society driven questions.
Accordingly, OceanBit’s structure has been established
in 3 main Divisions and 4 Services responsible for
providing the support to the Divisions, in accordance to
OceanBit’s mission.
4.1
Systems Operations and Support Division
The Systems Operations and Support Division is
responsible for operating the observational, numerical
and data management facilities providing support to
OceanBit Programs and project, as well as to the
external scientific community and other organizations.
The division has 4 Units that will provide data facilities
of different kinds for science and society. Five major
Observing Facilities will be initially considered, a new
highly technology advanced coastal catamaran research
vessel, approximately 26 m LOA (badly needed in the
Islands with more than 1.200 km of coastline), HF radar
for coastal monitoring of strategic areas such as the
Ibiza and Menorca channels, gliders and autonomous
underwater vehicles, open ocean and coastal moorings
and nearshore monitoring of beaches and harbours.
OceanBit will have both static and re-locatable
observing facilities. The static facilities will be mostly
sustained in permanent locations (in response to
operational and scientific needs) and will be open and
free to international access through THREDDS
catalogue using an OpENDAP distribution service. The
re-locatable dynamic facilities will have adaptive
capability in space and time to respond to specific
scientific requests that will be allocated after an
The Numerical Modelling Facility Unit will be
responsible for forecasting and data assimilation
(including currents and waves at different scales
(regional and local, nested to MFS/MOON system) and
advancing towards biogeochemical coupling.
The Data Centre Facility Unit is the core of OceanBit.
The data management system created for gliders, a
recent contribution from IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) to
OceanBit, is an initial and pilot example of the new
informatics capabilities for real-time definition of
mission planning, including adaptive sampling and real
time monitoring using a Web tool that allows quick
visualization and download. RAMADDA, a new suite
of comprehensive data management, archiving and
repository services that automatically reads NetCDF
files, enables discovery, search and downloads of the
data and complementary data (such as figures,
instructions, etc), establishing the relation between
them. This is just an example of the OceanBit data
lifecycle for a platform, using the combination of
existing tools, standards and internal development.
Finally, a Real Time Operations and Support Unit will
be responsible for providing real time response and
developing tools for science based decision making
such as coastal applications from remote sensing data
(altimetry, SST, ocean colour).
Combined, these facilities will constitute a sustained,
spatially distributed, heterogeneous, potentially relocatable and dynamically adaptive observing network
that will be integrated through data management and
numerical methodologies to exploit the synergies
between the observational network per se, and between
the observational network and the numerical models,
with the goal of providing a complete and integrated
description of the physical and biogeochemical
properties of the marine environment.
2
Figure 1. The Concept of OceanBit’s Data Center
4.2
Applications, Strategic Issues and Society
Division
Sustainability science is one of the major challenges in
the forthcoming years. This division, with two units, is
responsible for developing high quality research and
applications in support to society needs, in particular
related to the implementation of science based
sustainable, coastal and marine strategies.
Research
activities
directly
related
to
the
implementation of a science based Integrated Coastal
Zone Management in the Balearic Islands are ongoing
since 2005 and have been included into OceanBit’s
Strategic Plan. Results obtained in the frame of theses
activities
can
be
found
at:
http://www.costabalearsostenible.es .
OceanBit will also progressively address the
preservation and restoration of the coastal zone and its
biodiversity, the analysis of its vulnerability under
global change. Specific innovative, multidisciplinary
and well focused programmes are also under
preparation to progressively establish a more science
based and sustainable management of the coastal ocean.
A Users Services and Products Unit will be responsible
for ensuring the transfer of knowledge generated in this
division to society.
4.3
Engineering and Technology Development
Division
This Division will be responsible for developing new
monitoring platforms and implementation of sensors for
safer navigation and optimum sampling as well as for
developing
new
applications
of
relevance.
Implementation of observing systems such as surface
drifters, ARGO profilers, will be also its responsibility.
It will be also responsible for the organization and work
of a pool of engineers that will be providing support and
will operate the different scientific equipments from the
facilities.
4.4
OceanBit’s Services
The following Services have been also established to
guarantee the fulfilment of OceanBits’ objectives by
each one of the three Divisions. They are Computing
and IT, Outreach and Education, and Management and
Finance.
Finally, the Office of the Director will be responsible
for the overall coordination of activities and the
international OceanBIT fellow Program, together with
the coordination of activities with the Scientific
Advisory Board.
3
Figure 2. Structure and Organization Chart
5
PARTNERSHIP
AND
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
OPERATIONS,
6
SPANISH LARGE SCALE SCIENTIFIC
AND TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURES
OceanBit will allow real time monitoring and
forecasting of the space-time variability of the coastal
area and the development of new technologies and
tools that can contribute to science-based decision
support in safety at sea operations and sustainable
management of the coastal region.
OceanBit is part of the Spanish Large Scale
Infrastructure Facilities (ICTS). An international
scientific advisory committee will be responsible for
the implementation of a peer review evaluation process
following the highest quality standards. Formal
agreement between the Spanish Government (Ministry
of Science and Innovation) and the Balearic Islands
Regional Government (Ministry of Economy, Finance
and Innovation) was reached in 2008. Activities
planned for 2009 specifically include preparation of the
implementation plan and the formal participation in the
OceanBit consortium of key partners in the Balearic
Islands, such as CSIC (National Research Council),
IEO (Spanish Institute of Oceanography) and UIB
(University Balearic Islands). Strong and active
OceanBit, in close partnership with institutions, will (a)
operate and provide access to the Balearic Islands
Observing and Forecasting System. (b) Offer open
access to data to the national and international marine
and coastal research communities. (c) Establish,
operate and/or provide merit-based access to the
research infrastructures of OceanBit.
4
involvement and partnership between all key players is
essential for the success of this initiative and
cooperative agreements with other international
institutions are also foreseen in the near future.
OceanBit is a new way to fund R&D activities in Spain
and represents a very significant change in marine and
coastal observing both in the Balearic Islands and at a
European level, moving to a strategic regional
approach with a view to establishing a national
sustained marine and coastal system. It is a pilot
initiative that will later be extended to a national and/or
European level. OceanBit is a specific contributor to
MOON in the Mediterranean. Links will be also
established with ongoing European operational
initiatives such as MyOcean, the Marine Core Service
in the Mediterranean and other GMES actions.
5