MOOSE

MOOSE : Mediterranean Ocean Observing System on Environment

Coordinator : Patrick Raimbault (COM, Marseille)
Project leader at LOV : Laurent Coppola

MOOSE has been set up as an interactive, distributed and integrated observatory system of the NW Mediterranean Sea to detect and identify long-term environmental anomalies.

MOOSE is a multi-disciplinary observing network based on fixed observatories (buoys, mooring lines) and mobile autonomous platforms (gliders, profiling floats) in coastal and open ocean regions. It aims to observe the spatio-temporal variability of processes interacting between the coastal-open ocean and the ocean-atmosphere components. One of the targets is to build efficient indicators in order to monitor the “health” of the NW Mediterranean basin. This issue will be i.a. addressed by using physical and biogeochemical sensors collecting convenient data for operational oceanography at the regional scale characterizing the continuum between the coastal and the open-sea areas.

Started in 2009 with an investment of about 2M€ for oceanographic instruments, MOOSE, as pluri-institutional initiative, will continue with national funding of about 21M€ until 2021.