Mercator history

The idea that led to Mercator was conceived ten years ago. On 26 June 1995, at La Chapelle Aubareil in the Périgord region of France, a group of around thirty oceanographers met in response to an invitation from Michel Lefebvre and Jean-François Minster and began to piece the puzzle together. Their common goal was to fulfil a previously unattainable ambition, namely the operational characterisation and forecasting of the ocean, in the same way that a weather forecast characterises the atmosphere. The project was to involve continuous observation of the ocean by the altimetry satellites TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS, research teams at the leading edge in modelling and data assimilation, the first pilot models of forecasting systems and a wide range of complementary know-how to be provided by experts in French research organisations (namely CNES, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Météo-France and Shom).

The group at La Chapelle Aubareil took the plunge on 26 June 1995. They defined their objectives, worked out a schedule and conceived their project. Decision-makers from the organisations involved then reviewed the project before giving it their blessing. It was christened 'Mercator', in honour of the Flemish cartographer who mapped the world, produced one of the very first atlases and bequeathed one of the most widely-used map projection systems to today's oceanographers.

From 1997, Mercator went international, with the Godae system (Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment), sponsored by UNESCO. This was the first experiment in integrated operational oceanography to be carried out on a global scale. When Godae was being conceived, the Mercator project served as an example, before becoming the French component. From then on, Mercator had an international vocation.

In 1998, satellites led the way. For the first time, maps of ocean topography plotted by TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS (for the Ssalto/Duacs project) were produced and distributed in real time and we could see the great ocean currents flowing 'live' in front of our eyes.

The focus then shifted to the deep ocean, which can only be observed in situ, with the international Argo programme and its French component Coriolis. The deployment of 3,000 floats throughout the global ocean was undertaken (nearly 1,900 had been deployed by the end of June 2005) to collect essential vertical temperature and salinity measurements (taken from the surface to a depth of 2,000 metres) as input for the models.

In 1999, a Master Plan was drawn up, showing how the numerical conquest of the oceans could be achieved. This described how the Mercator system would be deployed in three stages, each one using a prototype more complex than the previous one.

The heart of the system would be a physical model of the ocean, capable of simulating its thermodynamic state (temperature, salinity, currents, etc) and which would take into account, in real time, the satellite measurements (sea height, for example) and those from instruments placed in the sea (deep sea temperature, for example). The first prototype simulates the North and Equatorial Atlantic (as far as 20° South) with medium resolution (1/3°, or 35 km at the equator and 25 km in the Bay of Biscay).

The second prototype is now tackling high resolution in European waters: its model characterises the North Atlantic (as far as 10° North) and the Mediterranean, with a grid resolution five times higher (1/15°, or between 5 and 7 km). By 2003 this was generating high-resolution products with a considerable degree of realism.

The third stage is solely dedicated to modelling the global ocean. At the end of 2005 this will be achieved with a resolution of ¼° (or 28 km at the equator).

On 17 January 2001, the first Mercator bulletin rolled off the production line. On this day, the dream of a real-time operational oceanographic system meeting the needs of users, finally came true, as the images in the bulletin were immediately published on Internet with, at the time, 800 maps every week describing currents, temperature and salinity in the North and Equatorial Atlantic, from the surface to the bottom and up to two weeks ahead of time. The monthly publication "Science et Vie", in its 1,000th issue of January 2001, acknowledged this transition into the 21st Century by classifying the Mercator project as among the most daring in contemporary science!

This historic first bulletin attracted an initial group of users beyond those from the founding establishments. Within the first year, requests began arriving for applications in various fields of scientific research (such as oceanography and fish stock management), as well as in fishing, education, offshore industries, pollution monitoring, maritime engineering, shipping route management and coastal oceanography.

The Mercator project had achieved its first objective which was to demonstrate the feasibility of operational oceanographic forecasting.

The need for a centre for oceanic forecasting became clearer and this led to a new stage in the project, with the founding of a dedicated, specialised organisation.

The GIP's first anniversary was celebrated with the release of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean high-resolution prototype. The weekly description of the ocean with a resolution of 1/15° (or 5 to 7 km) provided the level of precision that was expected. Animated images of Gulf Stream eddies winding and shedding, upwelling cycles (rising cold waters found along the eastern edge of the oceans) off the coast of Africa and exchanges between the waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean provided a completely new view of ocean dynamics.

With the European GMES programme (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), the European Union and the European Space Agency have undertaken to provide Europe with the capability for operational monitoring of the environment.

Mercator Ocean is a key player in this European operational oceanography system.

With the commissioning of the global ¼° model on October, 14th (full coverage of the oceans with a resolution of ¼°, or around 28 km at the equator), the deal changes. Mercator is preparing to join a very exclusive club - that of the small number of global forecasting models providing resolution on such a scale (Mercator itself will have the highest vertical resolution, as well as being the only model to take account of sea ice at the two poles, in 2006). The event took place at the Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Council, in presence of its President and of all the GIP organism directors.

At the beginning of 2006, the GIP has completed its mission: it has turned the project into a structured service, comprising a wide range of skills, from the realistic general global description of oceanic basins to the transformation of raw data into the useful information required by the customers.