Verification and communication of the scientific quality of operational oceanography products of the Copernicus Marine Service

The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) is delivering ocean satellite observations, in situ observations, together with ocean model reanalyzes, analyzes and forecasts from a unique web portal (Le Traon et al, 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00234). Each one of these products is evaluated before its entry into service, and its quality is documented in a Quality Information Document (QUID). This information is complemented by regular quality metrics updates on the CMEMS website. Due to a relatively sparse observation network, in particular in subsurface, it is still a challenge to propose meaningful uncertainty estimates and forecast skills to the operational oceanography user’s community. In order to improve, and better target the scientific quality information provided to the various types of CMEMS users, several developments are ongoing which will be described in this presentation.