IEOOS: the Spanish Institute of Oceanography Observing System

Abstract

Abstract. Since its foundation, 100 years ago, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) has been observing and measuring the ocean characteristics. Here is a summary of the initiatives of the IEO in the field of the operational oceanography. Some systems like the tide gauges network has been working for more than 70 years. The standard sections began at different moments depending on the local projects, and nowadays there are more than 180 coastal stations and deep-sea ones that are systematically sampled, obtaining physical and biochemical measurements. At this moment, the Observing System includes six permanent moorings equipped with current meters, an opensea ocean-meteorological buoy offshore Santander and a sea-surface temperature satellite image station. It also supports the Spanish contribution to the Argo international programme with 47 deployed profilers, and continuous monitoring thermosalinometers, meteorological stations and vesselmounted acoustic Doppler current profilers on the research vessel fleet. The system is completed with the contribution to the Northwest Iberian peninsula and Gibraltar observatories, and the development of regional prediction models. All these systematic measurements allow the IEO to give responses to ocean research activities, official agencies requirements and industrial and main society demands such as navigation, resource management, risks management, recreation, as well as for management development pollution-related economic activities or marine ecosystems. All these networks are linked to international initiatives, framed largely in supranational programmes of Earth observation sponsored by the United Nations or the European Union. The synchronic observation system permits a spatio-temporal description of some events, such as new deep water formation in the Mediterranean Sea and the injection of heat to intermediate waters in the Bay of Biscay after some colder northern storms in winter 2005.

Climatological Hydrographic Properties and Water Mass Transports in the Balearic Channels From Repeated Observations Over 1996–2019

“…The second project, called CIRBAL (Circulation in the Balearic Channels), collected data from 1999 to 2006. Finally, in the frame of the RADMED project, the Balearic Channels have been monitored from 2007 to the present (López-Jurado et al, 2015;Tel et al, 2016). The first two projects were devoted to the study of the physical properties of the water masses and their circulation within the Balearic Channels (Pinot et al, 2002).…”

On the seasonal variability of the Canary Current and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

“…Two hydrographic cruises were carried out in fall 2013 (48 stations, 15-25 October) and spring 2014 (51 stations, 4-14 April) as part of the Raprocan project, the Canary Islands component of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography ocean observing system Tel et al, 2016]. During the fall cruise, the box-shaped domain was closed in the east by hydrographic stations, while during spring, the box was closed with the African coast ( Figure 1).…”

The Seasonal Cycle of the Eastern Boundary Currents of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

“…Since 2003, the RaProCan project, which is the Canary Islands component of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) ocean observing system (Tel et al., 2016; Vélez‐Belchí et al., 2015), monitors the Canary Basin. In 2015, the RaProCan project joined efforts with the Seasonal Variability of the AMOC: Canary Current (SeVaCan) project of the Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global to increase the temporal resolution of the observations.…”