Advance Marine Research Infrastructure Together

Understanding the dynamics of the ocean and marine ecosystems, and its role in climate and the carbon cycle in particular, are major areas of scientific research worldwide and largely guide the design and operation of ocean observation systems (OOS). Processes need in fact to be better understood, and the spatial variability of phenomena better quantified, so that fluxes, budgets and trends can be correctly calculated. With the Essential Ocean Variables (EOV) concept and its observational programmes, the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) has achieved an operational organisation and can now begin to properly address some of these issues. However, there are still many gaps and many marine research infrastructures (MRI) are now committed to contributing further to its implementation and improvement.

Sensing technology has developed in recent years, and the containerization of sensors, their miniaturisation have enabled them to be integrated on a growing number of platforms: ships, moorings, profiling floats and autonomous vehicles. These technological advances mean that parameters can now be acquired over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, leading to better and better implementation plans for EOVs, but also posing major organisational and efficiency challenges for data management, from the very moment they are planned right through to their many final uses. 

AMRIT, a Horizon Europe project which started in 2024, brings together the main European ocean observation MRIs and the key national organisations that operate these MRIs, as well as Copernicus Marine and Climate services, to homogenise the metadata from the sensors to the end users, and to provide integrated and open services to improve the overall data value chain. This will enhance the quality of products such as climate atlases, particularly for the key EOVs, and ensure that they meet the needs of all users. AMRIT will develop and provide its federated services within the framework of the European OOS (EOOS), currently under development.