Ocean Sci., 12, 345–353, 2016 www.ocean-sci.net/12/345/2016/ doi:10.5194/os-12-345-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. IEOOS: the Spanish Institute of Oceanography Observing System Elena Tel1, Rosa Balbin2, Jose-Manuel Cabanas3, Maria-Jesus Garcia1, M. Carmen Garcia-Martinez4, Cesar Gonzalez-Pola5, Alicia Lavin6, Jose-Luis Lopez-Jurado2, Carmen Rodriguez6, Manuel Ruiz-Villarreal7, Ricardo F. Sánchez-Leal8, Manuel Vargas-Yáñez4, and Pedro Vélez-Belchí9 1Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Servicios Centrales, Madrid, Spain 2Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 3Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Vigo, Spain 4Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Fuengirola, Fuengirola, Spain 5Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón, Gijón, Spain 6Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Santander, Santander, Spain 7Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain 8Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Cádiz, Cádiz Spain 9Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain Correspondence to: E. Tel ([email protected]) Received: 31 July 2015 – Published in Ocean Sci. Discuss.: 27 October 2015 Revised: 2 February 2016 – Accepted: 11 February 2016 – Published: 4 March 2016 Abstract. Since its foundation, 100 years ago, the Span- for management development pollution-related economic ac- ish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) has been observing tivities or marine ecosystems. All these networks are linked and measuring the ocean characteristics. Here is a sum- to international initiatives, framed largely in supranational mary of the initiatives of the IEO in the field of the op- programmes of Earth observation sponsored by the United erational oceanography. Some systems like the tide gauges Nations or the European Union. The synchronic observation network has been working for more than 70 years. The system permits a spatio-temporal description of some events, standard sections began at different moments depending on such as new deep water formation in the Mediterranean Sea the local projects, and nowadays there are more than 180 and the injection of heat to intermediate waters in the Bay of coastal stations and deep-sea ones that are systematically Biscay after some colder northern storms in winter 2005. sampled, obtaining physical and biochemical measurements. At this moment, the Observing System includes six per- manent moorings equipped with current meters, an open- sea ocean-meteorological buoy offshore Santander and a 1 Introduction sea-surface temperature satellite image station. It also sup- ports the Spanish contribution to the Argo international pro- Operational oceanography (OO) is the activity of systematic gramme with 47 deployed profilers, and continuous monitor- and long-term routine measurements of the seas and oceans, ing thermosalinometers, meteorological stations and vessel- their interpretation and dissemination (Parrilla, 2001) in or- mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers on the research der to fulfil upcoming needs from many different sectors: in- vessel fleet. The system is completed with the contribution to dustry, service, policy making, etc., besides the scientific one. the Northwest Iberian peninsula and Gibraltar observatories, The IEO’s goal is scientific knowledge of the oceans and the and the development of regional prediction models. All these marine environment and has been developed based on ob- systematic measurements allow the IEO to give responses to servation and research. For more than 2 decades it has been ocean research activities, official agencies requirements and investing resources, time and funds in the field of OO, to pro- industrial and main society demands such as navigation, re- mote results for social development and benefit. Institutional source management, risks management, recreation, as well as strengthening is desirable for the network of sampling it has developed. The results are given to the interested national and Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 346 E. Tel et al.: IEOOS: the Spanish Institute of Oceanography Observing System international community and the IEO’s Spanish representa- are integrated into the Global Sea Level Observing System tive in the European forums (International Oceanographic (GLOSS) and the long period of data registered by RONI- Data and Information Exchange (IODE), International Coun- MAR has made it possible to integrate these sea level time cil for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), . ) for appropri- series to global and regional data sets for studies of long- ate action. Some data collected across this Observing Sys- term trends, as well as for decadal and interannual variability tem are linked to international initiatives. As an example, the (Tel and Garcia, 2002; Tel, 2007). Nowadays the sea level is IEO participates in the Fixed-point Open Ocean Observatory sampled every 5 min in most of the stations and these data are network (FixO3) European project with data from the Au- also relevant for the estimation of extreme sea levels (Garcia gusto Gonzalez de Linares (AGL) buoy; and nutrients and et al., 2012). Over time, the tide gauge network has been up- dissolved oxygen information from water samples at differ- graded in line with technological advances, both in terms of ent depth levels, that are collected along the hydrographic system measurement (from the mechanical tide gauge with sections, are included in the European Marine Observation graphical recorder to a radar technology) and in relation to and Data Network (EMODNet, DG-Mare/2012) initiative in data transmission (from postal mailing to automatic trans- order to improve the knowledge and construct distribution mission). Nowadays, four stations (Palma de Mallorca, Vigo, maps of the variables along the European coasts. Cádiz, and Puerto de la Luz) are sampled every minute, and An increase in ocean measurements and the availability of can be used in seiche or tsunami studies. These tide gauge information on sea behaviour and variability provide a fun- data are made available daily at http://indamar.ieo.es. damental opportunity for the rational use and exploitation of the ocean. This is an important factor for Blue Growth and a green economy. In a sense, the more ocean data we can 3 Hydrographic monitoring sections collect, the better responses to the social demands we will be able to offer, such as for improved weather forecasts, sea- The IEO has been monitoring the Spanish shelf waters for the related hazard prevention, marine safety and coastal tourism. last 25 years. This is the oldest national field programme for Although all the data sets are quality controlled locally multidisciplinary marine research addressing long-term vari- by the researchers that are responsible for the different pro- ability issues at ecosystem level (Bode et al., 2014). Core ob- grammes, the IEO performs a double validation when the servations include ship-based hydrographical, biogeochemi- data arrive to its data centre for permanent archiving. Fol- cal and plankton observations at monthly frequency in sev- lowing the internationally agreed protocols, data are checked eral oceanographic sections along the Iberian shelf. The first for spikes and position/date errors, and validated against cli- series was initiated in the northwestern shelf (Valdes et al., matological values in the different areas. To preserve the 2002), and other programmes extended the observations to data for the future, all detected problems are flagged with the Mediterranean in 1992 (López-Jurado et al., 2015). This a numerical code, that gives added value to the original data long-term monitoring gives knowledge about differences in and facilitate further use of them. Reformatted to interna- the large-scale off-shore oceanographic conditions along the tionally accepted standard formats, and meta-dated follow- water column (Vargas-Yáñez et al., 2012), and description ing the Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine of the intermediate water seasonal formation (Vargas-Yáñez Data Management (SeaDataNet) protocols and the INSPIRE et al., 2010). directive (2007/2/EC), both, data and metadata, are incorpo- In 2003, an initiative (RadProf) to semiannually sample rated into the IEO data archive structure, linked to the Sea- off-shelf waters using the same approach was established in DataNet network, and made accessible through the web por- order to understand the mechanisms governing the internal tal www.seadatanet.org. variability of the ocean, and therefore of the climate. The This paper aims to give a general overview of the differ- Finisterre section takes a good representation of the East- ent programmes that the IEO supports to achieve its scientific ern Boundary Waters along the Iberian Basin and western objectives as well as to serve the different demands that are Galician Bank. In 2006 the deep hydrographic section around imposed by the society. The different programmes evolve as the Canary Islands began, in order to establish the scales of time passes, adapting new technologies and sampling strate- variability in the decadal/subdecadal range in the subtropical gies to fulfil IEO needs and the ability to manage them. gyre, specifically in its eastern margin (Velez-Belchi et al., 2014). In 2009, new stations in the Gulf of Cádiz (STOCA programme) were