About COMEDI

COMEDI works at the heart of the Copernicus Marine Service: the step where observations and models are combined into the ocean products that users rely on. Eleven partners, three joint development teams and an external advisory board carry out the work.

From observations to users

The production system of every Monitoring and Forecasting Centre has the same building blocks. Data assimilation combines model predictions with observations to find the best estimate of the ocean state, which then starts the forecasts and reanalyses that users rely on.

Observe

Satellites and in situ networks such as Argo floats measure sea level, temperature, salinity, sea ice and ocean colour.

Assimilate and forecast COMEDI

The Monitoring and Forecasting Centres combine the observations with ocean, biogeochemistry and sea-ice models through data assimilation.

Deliver products

The Copernicus Marine Service publishes near-real-time forecasts and multi-year reanalyses, with their uncertainties.

Serve users

~30,000 active users, over 100,000 registered

  • Shipping and navigation
  • Fisheries and aquaculture
  • Offshore industries
  • Coastal services
  • Policy makers
  • Environmental NGOs
  • Academia
  • The general public

COMEDI partners

Data assimilation developers from the Monitoring and Forecasting Centres work alongside research institutes and universities, so that new methods are taken up in operations.

  • NERSC
  • Mercator Ocean International
  • Université de Liège
  • OGS
  • Met Office
  • ECMWF
  • Alfred Wegener Institute
  • CMCC
  • CERFACS
  • Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
  • Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Joint development teams

Partners also work across institutions in three joint development teams. Each team brings together the people working on one shared theme, so that methods and tools are developed once and used by several partners.

AI team

ULiège, NERSC, CMCC

AI techniques for data assimilation.

Protocol team

MOi, ECMWF, UKMET, METNO, OGS

Diagnostic protocols for observation impact.

Software team

AWI, NERSC, MOi, CMCC

Interoperable data assimilation software.

Advisory board

Nine external experts — from forecasting centres, data providers and the research community — review the project's direction and keep it connected to the users of Copernicus Marine.

  • Joanna StanevaHelmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, GermanyDownscaling, wave–ocean interactions
  • Vasily KorabelDMI, DenmarkPDAF, NEMOVAR, Baltic MFC
  • Jozef SkakalaPML, United KingdomBiogeochemical DA, NWS MFC
  • Lörinc MeszarosDeltares, NetherlandsBiogeochemical downscaling, CMUG, EuroGOOS
  • Yann GuichouxeOdyn, FranceUser of surface currents
  • Marie-Isabelle PujolCLS, FranceSea level TAC provider
  • Marie-Hélène RioESASatellite data provider
  • Helen MorrisonBSH, GermanyNWS MFC
  • Alberto CarrassiUniversity of Bologna, ItalyNon-Gaussian DA theory