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What is EuroSITES?
EuroSITES is a FP7 Collaborative Project which aims to form an integrated European network of 9 deep-ocean (>1000m) observatories. The EuroSITES network will be coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK and involves 13 Partners across Europe and the Cape Verde Islands.
EuroSITES will build on the work of FP6 EUR-OCEANS (Work Package 2.1 'Observing Systems') to integrate and enhance the existing European open-ocean observational capacity to encompass the ocean interior, seafloor and subseafloor. EuroSITES will produce a more reliable ocean observatory network with common funding streams and data management systems. The network will also enhance the development of more sophisticated sensors to measure more complex properties of the oceans. This will allow a greater understanding of the impact of the changing global Ocean and Earth on mankind and ecosystems at large. This has implications for policy makers, production industries (e.g. fisheries, agriculture) service industries (e.g. insurance) and society at large.
European Deep ocean observatories: Contribution to GEOSS
EuroSITES will focus on in situ long-term time-series ocean observations. Working closely with other European projects such as ESONET and EMSO, MERSEA, HERMES and relevant International projects (e.g., ORION and NEPTUNE) EuroSITES will make a major contribution both to the subsea component of the European GMES programme for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and to the vision of GEOSS (The Global Earth Observation System of Systems) which aims '....to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observations of the Earth system, in order to improve monitoring of the state of the Earth, increase understanding of Earth processes, and enhance prediction of the behaviour of the Earth system' (GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan). EuroSITES will achieve this by integrating and coordinating the existing fixed point observing systems in the deep seas around Europe. It will upgrade these systems according to the currently percieved best practice and available technology and will identify future requirements, enhancing the links with industry and the rest of the international community. However, it is only through a coordinated approach with the entire ocean observational community that the ultimate goal of unified integrated European ocean observation activities will be achieved.
Structure of EuroSITES
Click here to find out more about the work packages related to EuroSITES.
EuroSITES Partners
1. NOCS: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, U.K.
2. UiB: University of Bergen, Norway
3. HCMR: Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece
4. OGS: L'Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Trieste, Italy
5. CNR-ISSIA: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Genoa, Italy
6. IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany
7. University of Aberdeen, U.K.
8. CNRS (Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-Mer, Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Centre de Physique des Particules Marseille)
9. IFREMER: Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer, Brest, France
10. Océanopolis, Brest, France
11. ICCM: Instituto Canario de Ciencias Marinas, Gran Canaria, Spain
12. INDP: Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Pescas, Cape Verde, Mindelo, Cape Verde
13. ULPGC: Universidad de Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
EuroSITES Oversight Committee
Name |
Expertise |
Organisation & Location |
Dr Holly Given |
Director, Ocean Observing Activities, ORION. Geophysicist. |
Washington , DC , USA |
Dr Mary Jane Perry |
Member ORION Steering committee. Biological oceanographer. |
University of Maine , Maine , USA |
Dr. Rick Jahnke |
Chair , US Coastal Ocean Processes Programme. Member, Observatory Steering Committee, ORION. Deep ocean benthic biogeochemist. |
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography , Georgia , USA |
Dr Oscar Schofield |
ORION Steering committee member. Coordinator of LEO15 observatory. Biological oceanographer. |
Rutgers University , New Jersey , USA |
Professor Chris Barnes |
Project Director for NEPTUNE Canada . Expertise in sedimentary geology and paleobiology. |
Neptune Canada , University of Victoria , Canada |
Dr Uwe Send |
Co-chair, OceanSITES Steering Committee. ORION Science and Technical Advisory Committee member . Former co-ordinator FP6 ANIMATE programme. Physical oceanographer. |
Scripps Institute of Oceanography , USA |
Dr Hans Dahlin |
Director EuroGOOS. Oceanographer |
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute , Norrköping , Sweden |
Dr Keith Brander |
ICES/ GLOBEC coordinator. Fisheries biologist. |
DTU Aqua - Danish Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Charlottenlund, Denmark |
Dr Uli Wolf |
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) team member. Physical oceanographer |
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, Paris |
Dr Dennis McGillicuddy |
Ocean Modeller with expertise in the link between fluid dynamics and biology |
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, USA |
Dr Rob Armstrong |
Ocean Modeller in marine ecology and biogeochemistry |
Marine Sciences Research Center , State University of New York , USA . |
Dr Marion Gehlen |
Member of CARBOOCEAN Steering Committee and Executive Board. Ocean Modeller, Biological oceanographer. |
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Paris, France |
Dr Alex Kozyr |
Data manager. Chemical oceanographer. |
CDIAC, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , USA |
