MERCATOR OCEAN JOURNA: 
SEPTEMBER 2021 
All the products are monitored and constantly validated 
to guarantee the quality standard declared in the 
Copernicus Marine Service product Quality Information 
Document (QuID). The Copernicus verification has been 
constantly Improved, with the latest addition of the 
SST class 2 statistics. The North West Shelf relies also 
on the collaboration with the North West European 
Shelf Operational Oceanographic System (NOO0S) for 
ıntercomparison with all the observations and coastal 
models available in the area. NWS-MFC has contributed 
during these years to the development and maintenance of 
the NOOS Multi Model Ensemble Forecast intercomparison 
and alert system. 
3. POST 2021 PERSDECTIVES 
The ambition of the NWS is: 
- improving the skills of its systems, 
refining the processes represented by models, 
improving the data assimilation, 
increasing the complexity of NWS systems adding 
coupling effects. 
Ensemble systems will allow the extension of the forecast 
lead time and to estimation of the uncertainty. 
New vertical grids, at higher resolution, will be trialled to 
better represent processes In the shelf and deep areas 
of the model domain. The horizontal resolution will be 
increased, where needed, in the coastal areas of the 
geographical domain. 
The quality and accuracy of products will be ensured 
through scientific developments to the models, the data 
assimilation schemes and the use of observations in the 
forecast and reanalysis systems. Users will benefit by 
having probabilistic information through the development 
of ensemble forecast systems. 
An Improved design of the scheduling system used to 
manage model runs and data processing will guarantee 
efficient and robust production of a system with increased 
complexity (more components and dependencies). This 
includes the capability for rapid pull-through of R&D 
developments Into operational product generation 
Reducing the gap between R&D and operationaı 
Implementation is a key factor for a fast development of 
the Copernicus Marine Service. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We would like to thank and acknowledge: Enda 0’Dea (Met Office) and Nico Bruneau (NOC) for their contribution to the 
Shelf NEMO configurations; Stefano Ciavatta (PML) and David Ford (Met Office) for the work on the biogeochemical data 
assimilation; Helen Powley (PML), for providing the rivers dataset and testing new boundaries for the biogeochemical 
component; Rob McEwan (Met Office) for his contribution to the validation of the biogeochemical reanalysis; Ray Mahdon 
(Met Office) for the first reanalysis timeseries production; Juan Castillo (Met Office) for his work on the coupled version of 
the NEMO-WAVEWATCH-III model; and Nieves Valiente (Met Office) for the validation of the wave products.