Motivation and international context of ocean forecasting

Ocean forecasting took its modern form at the turn of the century, when marine experts on in situ observations, satellite observations, numerical modelling and data assimilation decided to move together towards an integrated approach. Since then, operational oceanography has evolved incredibly fast, fostering communities’ engagement, bringing innovations to operations, and structuring new information services for users.

International cooperation was immediately adopted as a natural framework for the development of ocean forecasting, and this is still today an indispensable driving force pulling forward local and national initiatives across continents. 

The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE), kicked off in 1997 (Bell et al, 2010), played a leading role catalysing the initial steps of this revolution by engaging stakeholders worldwide to build “a global system of observations, communications, modelling and assimilation, that will deliver regular, comprehensive information on the state of the oceans, in a way that will promote and engender wide utility and availability of this resource for maximum benefit to the community”. Most of today’s ocean forecasting centres were born to respond to this international call and are directly built on principles and methods designed in this framework. 

GODAE has indeed established the foundation of an international cooperation for ocean forecasting and one of its first outcomes was to build the scientific and technical “common” required to develop and operate advanced ocean forecasting systems, promoting a cooperation based on openness and inclusiveness, and driven by constant innovation. This worldwide activity is benefitting ocean knowledge and is providing useful tools for decision making actions towards a more sustainable ocean. These motivations and principles are still framing and inspiring today our international cooperation for ocean forecasting.