1. 11 MEDATLAS 2002: database and data management system for the long term monitoring of Mediterranean and Black seas EC-MAST Concerted Action (MAS3-CT98-0174/ERBIC20-CT98-0103 ) 37th CIESM CONGRESS (Barcelona, 7-11 June 2004) C. MAILLARD, E. BALOPOULOS, N. MIKHAILOV, M. FICHAUT, G. MAUDIRE, M-J. GARCIA, B. MANCA, A. SUVOROV, A. GIORGETTI, A. IONA, M. RIXEN and MEDAR Group

2. 22 MEDAR GROUP

3. 33 Background and Objectives Long term monitoring requires long time series of marine observations, especially vertical profiles of temperature, salinity and bio-chemicals which represent basic environmental parameters Long time series of data are also necessary to compute statistics that will be used to qualify new data Such data are collected by scientific teams of many countries, but in most cases they remain dispersed in heterogeneous formats and systems. Their access is difficult, and due the lack of appropriate archiving, they are frequently in danger to be lost. Under the frame of the GODAR (Global Ocean Data Archaeology and rescue) and following two pilot projects MODB and MEDATLAS I, the EU regional sconcerted action MEDAR/MEDATLAS-II (MAS3-CT98-0174 & ERBIC20-CT98-0103), was launched in 1998 with the overall objective to make available a comprehensive data product of multi-disciplinary in-situ data and information in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, through a wide co-operation of the bordering countries.

4. 44 CD-ROM 4: climatology Black Sea + E-Mediterranean CD-ROM 3: Climatology Global + W-Mediterranean Result : a database on Result : a database on A set of 4 CD-ROMs CD-ROM 2: Database Observed data + SELMED interface for extraction (according to various criteria), interpolation and visualization - export formats: MEDATLAS, CSV or ODV. CD-ROM 1: Documentation on the project and its results Cruise inventory Software QCmedar ODV

5. 55 DATA BASE CONTENT DATA BASE CONTENT (Observed PARAMETERS) Parameter Nb of Profiles Parameter Nb of Profiles Temperature284 371Nitrite10 508 Salinity118 009Ammonium5 239 Oxygen44 928Chlorophyll4 672 Phosphate20 761Alkalinity2 548 Silicate15 920 Total Phosphorus 2 381 PH14 512H2SH2S1 843 Nitrate10 572Total Nitrogen 153

6. 66 DATA BASE CONTENT DATA BASE CONTENT (DATA TYPE) Data typeNb of Profiles in MEDATLAS 2002 (MEDATLAS 1997) MBT, XBT Thermistor chains 161 877 (156 503) CTD35 679 (15 778) Bottle Casts88 323 (33 977) Oldest data set: 1889

7. 77 TEMPERATURE

8. 88 SALINITY

9. 99 DISSOLVED OXYGEN

10.  10 PHOSPHATE

11.  11 CHLOROPHYLL

12.  12

13.  13 QUALITY CHECKS QCO : Automatic check of the format QC1 : Automatic and visual check of the headers QC2 : Automatic and visual check of the data points  a quality flag to each numerical value (GTSPP flag scale)

14.  14 DATA QUALITY GOOD FALSEDOUBTFUL OUT OF STATISTICS NO QC

15.  15 CLIMATOLOGY: Methodology  Computation of Climatological Analysis by Variational Inverse Model (VIM) algorithms  Computation made on finite elements and then re- interpolated on a regular grid (0.2 degrees in Latitude and Longitude), with smaller scales for local computations  T, S and bio-chemical climatology reviewed by regional experts and modellers http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/Medar

16.  16 CLIMATOLOGY - Results Selected numerical fields depending on data availability: Annual, seasonal and monthly climatology  Temperature, Salinity Annual and seasonal  Oxygen, Silicate, Phosphate  Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the Black Sea Annual only  Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, Ammonium, Alkalinity, Chlorophyll No climatology  Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen

17.  17 CLIMATOLOGY – Results SOME EXAMPLES CLIMATOLOGY – Results 2500 horizontal maps, vertical sections and stations location SOME EXAMPLES

18.  18

19.  19

20.  20 SALINITY at 10m Depth

21.  21 VERTICAL SECTIONS VERTICAL SECTIONS and surface zoom

22.  22

23.  23 Conclusion 1: Present Services MEDAR network disseminate MEDATLAS 2002, presently the best available integrated data base for the Mediterranean & BLack Seas. It provides also further data services: Extraction and distribution of regional or thematics subsets, to answer specific requests, Implementation of the common protocols and practices for data formatting and checking for quality, Additional services at the national levels: continuous compilation, quality checking with feedback to source scientists, perennial archiving and dissemination of new data. Visit our distributed web site: www.ifremer.fr/medar

24.  24 Further needs to meet Conclusion 2: Further needs to meet Direct internet access to the more complete available data sets : historical data + data released in recent projects including real time data - Use of up-to-date communication technology for data dissemination Increase in quantity and quality the data and products availability such as estimates of the mean, decadal, seasonal, monthly statistics at basin, regional and shelf scales – requires a large quantity of data of good quality Improve and document the QC standards and protocols, especially for bio-chemicals and products Increase efficiency through enhanced international cooperation & capacity building activities - requires more portable software, meetings and training courses Increase of the public awareness on the data heritage  New concerted actions in preparation: SEA-DATANET

25.  25