WMO World Meteorological Organization [to 4 April 2015]
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Inauguration of the operational centre for ocean observation in Brest
30 March 2015
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO inaugurated the new JCOMMOPS centre with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 18 March 2015.

The in situ Observing Platform Support Centre of the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMMOPS), which monitors ocean observing networks, is thus moving it’s centre of gravity from Toulouse to Brest in order to be closer to the high concentration of ocean professionals on the French coast.

“There are 10,000 buoys, floats and ships with equipment that take the pulse of the ocean, in addition to satellites,” explained the centre’s director, Mathieu Belbéoch. They contribute to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the permanent global system for ocean observations over the long term. GOOS plays play a vital role in improving the collection of data required for the development of climate forecasts and climate change detection.

The JCOMMOPS support centre assesses networks’ performance while encouraging their harmonization and optimization. It also assists in the establishment and maintenance of several observation networks, such as Argo and DBCP, which require 2 000 deployments per year. This colossal global effort is facilitated by a dedicated team, in constant dialogue with the ocean community, and by stakeholders of all maritime fields that contribute to the deployment of equipment and to data collection…