Predict the state of the oceans

Providing global forecasts about the state of the oceans within 15 days, similar to the atmosphere: that's the Mercator project's ambition.

Mercator Project Model The Mercator project was founded 10 years ago by a group of oceanographers from different horizons with the same goal of creating a permanent observatory capable of mapping goods. day of the ocean.

The six agencies that participated in this project are CNES - lending satellites to observe Jason and Envisat - CNRS, IRD, Ifremer- giving Argos buoy systems - Météo France and SHOM.

All glass telemetry data and observations of the coastal centers enrich the ocean samples with three-dimensional images recalculated once a week by the powerful meteorological machines of Météo France.

On January 17, 2001, the system allowed for the first time to publish a forecast of the ocean's status 15 days in advance and to provide a group of Ifremer oceanographers carrying out the mission. in the North Atlantic.

After this success, Mercator Ocean was born in 2002 to provide weekly predictions of ocean status with 3D images for 15 days. The ocean bulletin came out and every week published over 700 maps.
In 2003, Mercator observations stretching from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean became more and more accurate. It is possible to monitor the development of the Mediterranean seawater in the Atlantic basin or observe the equatorial surface at a depth of 100 m of water flowing back into the African coast. Today Mercator has an ambition to stretch its system to other oceans on Earth, first within 25 km. After that, from now until 2008 will be within 5 km.