MyOcean

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MyOcean was a European project series funded under the GMES program to build a continental system for ocean observation and forecasting. Its goal was to create an integrated, pan-European capability to monitor the oceans and provide forecasts for applications such as maritime security, oil spill prevention, marine resources management, climate and seasonal forecasting, coastal activities, ice surveys, water quality, and pollution monitoring.

Running from 2009 to 2015, MyOcean brought together about 60 partners in 28 countries, including major European agencies like JRC and ECMWF, with the European Environment Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency represented on the board. The project had a total budget of about €55 million, with around €33.8 million funded by the European Commission. Most of the funding went to staff costs, with smaller shares for mission expenses, management, and equipment. The effort involved hundreds of people, equivalent to about 190 full-time staff, across the consortium.

MyOcean consisted of two main phases: the initial MyOcean (2009–2012) and MyOcean2 (2012–2014). Its purpose was not to conduct new scientific research, but to develop and validate an operational, system-of-systems approach for European ocean monitoring and forecasting, following European quality standards and aiming to qualify services for users.

Governance was organized around an Executive Committee and a Board, both chaired by Pierre Bahurel. The Board included senior experts from key partners, chairs of advisory bodies, and representatives of European stakeholders. The core activity was to collect satellite and in-situ observations, calibrate and validate data, and then archive and distribute it. Seven regional technical areas covered the six European basins plus the Global Ocean, aligned with SeaDataNet to improve data management and exchange. By assimilating observations into 3D ocean models, MyOcean aimed to predict the ocean’s state between observations.

After the MyOcean program, a follow-on phase led to the Copernicus Marine Service. In November 2014, the European Commission signed an agreement with Mercator Ocean to establish the future Copernicus Marine Service starting in 2015. The old MyOcean site myocean.eu now hosts services as part of the Copernicus Marine Service at marine.copernicus.eu, and the MyOcean name continues to be used for the Copernicus Marine Service MyOcean Viewer, in operation since 2020.