The European Union’s Copernicus-funded TRUSTED project (Towards Fiducial Reference Measurements of Sea-Surface Temperature by European Drifters) has deployed over 100 state of the art drifting buoys for improved validation of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from the Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometers (SLSTR). These buoys are manufactured by NKE. The TRUSTED drifting buoys data and metadata are distributed in qualtity control NetCDF files, as a subset of DBCP drifting buoys GDAC (Global Data Assembly Centre). Coriolis DAC  (Data Assembly Centre) routinely collects, decodes, quality controls, preserves and distributes data and metadata as NetCDF-CF files. The TRUSTED buoys have specific features managed by Coriolis DAC python data processing chain: a high resolution temperature sensor in addition to the classic drifting buoy temperature sensor. The high sampling and high resolution observations are distributed in specific variables TEMP_HR, TEMP_HR_SPOT, TEMP_HR_XX (XX is the percentile sample).  

Observations of Sea surface temperature and salinity are now obtained from voluntary sailing ships using medium or small size sensors. They complement the networks installed on research vessels or commercial ships. The delayed mode dataset proposed here is upgraded annually as a contribution to GOSUD (http://www.gosud.org )

This dataset is an aggregation of all availale in situ data from Coriolis and Copernicus in situ data centres, observed in the French DCSMM area. It contains 5167 NetCDF CF files from 1903 to 2017. Each file contains the observations of a specific platform (e.g. vessel, mooring site, sea level station). Observed parameters are temperature, salinity, pressure, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll (and other bio-geo-chemicals), current, wave, sea level, river flow.  

The Coriolis Ocean Dataset for Reanalysis for the Ireland-Biscay-Iberia region (hereafter CORA-IBI) product is a regional dataset of in situ temperature and salinity measurements. The latest version of the product covers the period 1950-2014. The CORA-IBI observations comes from many different sources collected by Coriolis data centre in collaboration with the In Situ Thematic Centre of the Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS INSTAC).  The observations integrated in the CORA-IBI product have been acquired both by autonomous platforms (Argo profilers, fixed moorings, gliders, drifters, sea mammals, fishery observing system from the RECOPESCA program), research or opportunity vessels ( CTDs, XBTs, ferrybox).  This CORA-IBI product has been controlled using an objective analysis (statistical tests) method and a visual quality control (QC). This QC procedure has been developed with the main objective to improve the quality of the dataset to the level required by the climate application and the physical ocean re-analysis activities. It provides T and S individual profiles on their original level with QC flags. The reference level of measurements is immersion (in meters) or pressure (in decibars). It is a subset on the IBI (Iberia-Bay-of-Biscay Ireland) of the CMEMS product referenced hereafter. The main new features of this regional product compared with previous global CORA products are the incorporation of coastal profiles from fishery observing system (RECOPESCA programme) in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel as well as the use of an historical dataset collected by the Service hydrographique de la Marine (SHOM).

French Research vessels have been collecting thermo-salinometer (TSG) data since the early 2000 in contribution to the GOSUD programme. The set of homogeneous instruments is permanently monitored and regularly calibrated. Water samples are taken on a daily basis by the crew and later analysed in the laboratory. We present here the delayed mode processing of the time series intiated in 2001 dataset and an overview of the resulting quality. The careful calibration and instrument maintenance, complemented with a rigorous adjustment on water samples lead to reach an accuracy of a few 10-² PSS in salinity or evenless. Global comparison with the ISAS13 ARGO gridded product shows an excellent agreement of the datasets. The SSS-Fresh dataset appears as highly valuable for the "calibration and validation" of the new satellite observations delivered by SMOS, Aquarius and SMAP.

The Southern Ocean plays a fundamental role in regulating the global climate. This ocean also contains a rich and highly productive ecosystem, potentially vulnerable to climate change. Very large national and international efforts are directed towards the modeling of physical oceanographic processes to predict the response of the Southern Ocean to global climate change and the role played by the large-scale ocean climate processes. However, these modeling efforts are greatly limited by the lack of in situ measurements, especially at high latitudes and during winter months. The standard data that are needed to study ocean circulation are vertical profiles of temperature and salinity, from which we can deduce the density of seawater. These are collected with CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors that are usually deployed on research vessels or, more recently, on autonomous Argo profilers. The use of conventional research vessels to collect these data is very expensive, and does not guarantee access to areas where sea ice is found at the surface of the ocean during the winter months. A recent alternative is the use of autonomous Argo floats. However, this technology is not easy to use in glaciated areas. In this context, the collection of hydrographic profiles from CTDs mounted on marine mammals is very advantageous. The choice of species, gender or age can be done to selectively obtain data in particularly under-sampled areas such as under the sea ice or on continental shelves. Among marine mammals, elephant seals are particularly interesting. Indeed, they have the particularity to continuously dive to great depths (590 ± 200 m, with maxima around 2000 m) for long durations (average length of a dive 25 ± 15 min, maximum 80 min). A Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Logger (CTD-SRDLs) has been developed in the early 2000s to sample temperature and salinity vertical profiles during marine mammal dives (Boehme et al. 2009, Fedak 2013). The CTD-SRDL is attached to the seal on land, then it records hydrographic profiles during its foraging trips, sending the data by satellite ARGOS whenever the seal goes back to the surface.While the principle intent of seal instrumentation was to improve understanding of seal foraging strategies (Biuw et al., 2007), it has also provided as a by-product a viable and cost-effective method of sampling hydrographic properties in many regions of the Southern Ocean (Charrassin et al., 2008; Roquet et al., 2013).