SOCIB actively participated in the EGU General Assembly 2021

From 19 to 30 April, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2021, Europe’s largest geoscience meeting, brought together (virtually) scientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth-including oceanography-, planetary, and space sciences. The Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) actively participated in the General Assembly through several presentations showing how its ocean observing and forecasting capabilities respond to science, technology and society needs.

During the second week of the EGU 2021, on Monday 26, researchers from SOCIB, the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies - IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), and the Université de Liège hold a session about the formation and intensification mechanisms of strong long-lived anticyclonic mesoscale eddies in the Balearic Sea, addressing why some end-of-summer anticyclonic eddies become strong and persistent (some years they have stayed in the same area for up to 6 months). Also, researchers from SOCIB and IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) presented the Sub-regional Mediterranean Sea indicators visualization tool, in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EuroSea and JERICO-S3 projects. This tool, recently described in a paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science, provides continuous information about the sub-regional ocean state and variability from daily (events) to interannual/decadal (climate) scales through user-friendly diagnostics. Furthermore, SOCIB, together with IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography presented an analysis of vertical velocities development through high-resolution simulation and glider observations in the Alboran Sea, carried out in the frame of CALYPSO Project funded by ONR. Moreover, SOCIB researchers took part in the presentation about “The High Frequency coastal radar network in the Mediterranean: joint efforts towards a fully operational implementation”, led by Nologin Consulting SL.

On Wednesday 28, researchers from SOCIB, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), OceanScope and IFREMER presented the CMEMS In Situ TAC multi-year and multi-variate products to monitor and understand the ocean variability, in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service. In addition, SOCIB presented IBISAR, a user-friendly science-based data downstream service that allows to visualize, compare and evaluate the performance of ocean current predictions in the Iberian-Biscay-Irish (IBI) regional seas. It is designed for emergency responders and Search and Rescue (SAR) operators, to facilitate decision-making by guiding users to identify the most accurate current prediction in near-real time. Moreover, on Thursday 29, SOCIB and IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) researchers held a presentation comparing High Frequency (HF) radar radial and total derived observations’ capability to correct surface currents using data assimilation. Finally, on the last day, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MIT and SOCIB scientists held the presentation “Observing and quantifying ocean flow properties using drifters with drogues at different depths”, also related to the CALYPSO project.

About the EGU

The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience. EGU is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. It was established in September 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), and has headquarters in Munich, Germany.