The RAFOS float technique (the reverse acronym of SOund Fixing And Ranging) is used to obtain sub-surface trajectories of floats by acoustic location. These floats are immersed at a constant depth and drift with the body of water in which they are immersed. The floats record the arrival time of the sound signals emitted by a network of fixed acoustic sources placed on moorings. They regularly come to the surface to transmit the data that they have recorded.

The DBCP – Data Buoy Cooperation Panel - is an international program coordinating the use of autonomous data buoys to observe atmospheric and oceanographic conditions, over ocean areas where few other measurements are taken. DBCP coordinates the global array of 1 600 active drifting buoys (August 2020) and historical observation from 14 000 drifting buoys. Data and metadata collected by drifting buoys are publically available in near real-time via the Global Data Assembly Centers (GDACs) in Coriolis-Ifremer (France) and MEDS (Canada) after an automated quality control (QC). In long term, scientifically quality controlled delayed mode data will be distributed on the GDACs. Disclaimer: the DB-GDAC is under construction. It is currently (January 2020) aggregating data from the Coriolis DAC (E-Surfmar, Canada). Additional DACs are considered. An interim provision from GTS real-time data to GDAC may be provided from Coriolis DAC.  

CTD data collected during the French oceanographic cruises or joint programs.

Mesoscale dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea have been investigated for years and anticyclonic eddies are regularly observed features in the Algerian Basin. In early spring 2016, a field experiment during the ProtevsMed 2016 cruise thoroughly investigated this specific eddy, when it was located near the North Balearic Front, taking high-resolution (Seasoar) hydrological transects, several CTD casts and LADCP measurements. In addition, four drifting buoys were released in the eddy core. These in situ measurements revealed that the vertical structure of this anticyclone was made of two water lenses of very different origins (Atlantic Water above and Western Intermediate Water below) spinning together. In the vicinity of the North Balearic Front, which may act as a dynamical barrier for structures, the eddy interacted with a subsurface anticyclonic eddy made of modal water, which fostered cross-front exchanges generating filaments by stirring. The high-resolution sampling revealed fine scales structures both adjacent to the eddy and within its core. The eddy has been targeted from 21 March to 1 April 2016 taking advantage of a meteorological window. It has been sampled with:  - a towed undulating vehicle, the SeaSoar designed and built by Chelsea Instruments; it gets mounted on its sides two Sea-bird SBE-9 (SBE 3 temperature and SBE 4 conductivity sensors)  and a Wetlabs Fluorometer of type ChloroA WetStar  - CTD casts performed with a Sea-bird SBE-9 (SBE 3 temperature and SBE 4 conductivity sensor) and an RDI 150 kHz current profiler mounted in a general oceanics 12-place rosette, with12l Niskin bottles  - drifters with holey-sock positioned at 50 m deep below the expected Ekman layer thickness (remaining in the eddy until mid May).

The Greenland-Portugal A25 OVIDE line is carried out biennially since 2002. The section is composed of 98 stations where hydrographic, biogeochemical and current measurements are carried out down to the bottom. OVIDE is a contribution to the international programs Go-Ship, IOCCP, and CLIVAR. This data set contains the final (adjusted) CTDO2 data. 

French national archive (SISMER) of time series data, particularly current meter and thermistor data.

From 2015 to 2018 five field experiments (9 legs) have been performed in the Western Mediterranean Basin during winter or early spring. Thanks to the intensive use of a towed vehicle undulating in the upper oceanic layer between 0 and 400 meter depth (i.e. a Seasoar), a large amount of very high resolution hydrographic transects have been performed, to measure the mesoscale dynamics (slope current and its instabilities, anticyclonic eddies, sub-mesoscale coherent vortices, frontal dynamics convection events, strait outflows) and sub-mesoscale processes like stirring, mixed layer or symmetric instabilities. When available, the data were completed with velocities recorded by Vessel Mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (VMADCP) and by surface salinity and temperature recorded by ThermosalinoGraph (TSG). Some CTD casts have also been performed giving the background hydrography of the deep layers. In 2017, a Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) has been deployed to manage even higher horizontal resolution. This data set is an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the very fine scale processes as the Mediterranean Sea is known for its intense and contrasted dynamics. It should be useful for modellers (who reduce the grid size below a few hundred meters) and expect to properly catch finer scale dynamics. Likewise, theoretical work could also be illustrated by in situ evidence embedded in this data set.

The observations of campe glider on imedia deployment (Mediterranean Sea - Western basin) are distributed in 4 files: - EGO NetCDF time-series (data, metadata, derived sea water current) - NetCDF profiles extracted from the above time-series - Raw data - JSON metadata used by the decoder The following parameters are provided : - Practical salinity - Sea temperature in-situ ITS-90 scale - Electrical conductivity - Sea water pressure, equals 0 at sea-level

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 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).