Modelling the marine ecosystem of IBI European waters for CMEMS operational applications

As part of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), a physical-biogeochemical coupled model system has been developed to monitor and forecast the ocean dynamics and marine ecosystem of the European waters. The model domain, called Iberia-Biscay-Ireland (IBI), covers the North-East Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Iceland, including the North Sea and the Western Mediterranean. Based on NEMO-PISCES with a horizontal resolution of 1/36°, the CMEMS IBI coupled model has provided 7-day weekly ocean forecasts for CMEMS since April 2018. But prior to its operational launch, a pre-operational qualification simulation (2010-2016) has allowed assessing the model's capacity to reproduce the main biogeochemical and ecosystem features of the IBI area. 
The objective is to evaluate the capacity of the coupled model to reproduce the spatial distribution and seasonal dynamics of the main biogeochemical variables, using this 7-year qualification simulation. The model results are compared with available satellite estimates as well as in situ observations, with a focus on BGC-Argo floats. 
The evaluation confirms that this model system can be a useful tool to better understand the current state and changes in the marine biogeochemistry of European waters and can also provide key variables for developing indicators to monitor the health of marine ecosystems.