SOCIB synchronises its glider missions to the Copernicus Marine Service

The Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) has recently synchronised all its glider missions to the Copernicus Marine Service, which provides free and open marine data and services to enable marine policy implementation, support Blue growth, and scientific innovation. Using information from both satellite and in situ observations from data producers and providers, including SOCIB, Copernicus Marine Service provides daily state-of-the-art analyses and forecasts. This synchronization and data upload is set in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EuroSea project (WP4 on Ocean forecasting and Data assimilation) aimed at improving the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) in a global context.

SOCIB's glider deployed at the Balearic Sea.

Now all SOCIB glider missions with physical and biogeochemical observations from 2010 to 2022 are available through the Copernicus Marine Service web portal, performing more than 137,476 vertical profiles and 3,674 glider days, which is 1.5 times more than the 86,517 Argo profiles existing for the whole Mediterranean Sea. This represents more than 120 glider missions, with the vast majority performed in the Ibiza Channel (Canales Endurance Glider Line), but also in other areas in the Western Mediterranean Sea such as the Alboran Sea, the Algerian basin, and the Sardinia-Menorca section.

Furthermore, on the framework of the EuroSea project, and in compliance with SOCIB 2021-2024 Strategic Plan, SOCIB has implemented an operational pipeline to share the data with Global and European marine portals and repositories, responding to the commitment to integrate and distribute glider data in Copernicus. Thus, it fosters SOCIB data impact and contributes to the FAIR principles to make the research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The EuroSea project brings together key European actors of ocean observing and forecasting with users of oceanographic products and services. EuroSea is a European Union Innovation Action funded through the European Commission research funding programme Horizon 2020 under a call supporting the G7 Future of Seas and Oceans Flagship Initiative.