Real Time Quality Control of biogeochemical measurements

MyOcean is the implementation project of the GMES Marine Core Service, aiming at deploying the first concerted and integrated pan-European capacity for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting (http://www.myocean.eu.org ). The project objective is to analyze, forecast and observe the oceans at global and regional (European Seas) scales in order to provide a monitoring service for marine environment and security. Based on the approach on combining space and in-situ observations and their assimilation into 3-D simulation models, the MyOcean Service aims to provide the best information available on the global and regional ocean. These information include temperature, salinity, currents, ice extent, sea level and primary ecosystems. Its target applications are marine safety, marine resources, climate and seasonal forecasting as well as marine and coastal environment. An important step within the MyOcean project is to harmonize existing Real Time Quality Control (RTQC) and quality assurance procedures of the different nations involved. As the MyOcean service is thought to be available at any time and open to anyone, an agreement in good RTQC methods and procedures is vital to guarantee high data quality distributed to users via international exchange. The agreement on the implementation of uniform RTQC procedures has the severe potential to overcome the non-consistency within the existing datasets actually provided by the international community. One of the various tasks of the MyOcean project - the Work Package (WP) 15 – deals with the scientific and technical validation of In Situ-TAC (Technical Assembly Centres) products and forms the frame of this document. WP15 aims to perform operational quality control (QC) of global and regional products as well as to lead scientific assessment validation activities with regional responsibilities. Beside global scale products, regional specifications are performed in the Arctic, the Black Sea, the North-western Shelves, the Baltic Sea, the South-western Shelves and the Mediterranean Sea. It follows therewith the EuroGOOS regional approach, with establishing regional alliances.