MERCATOR OCEAN JOURNAL 
SEPTEMBER 2021 
AED NNS 
PQ Strategic Plan 
(PQ-SP) 
PQ Management Plan 
PQ-MP) 
Reference document for all CMEMS contributors. Provides overarching priorities that governs PQ 
policy in CMEMS. 
Top-level document (referential for all contributors) describing all CMEMS PQ processes that provides 
juidance to the Praduction Centres conrcernind the PQ activities ({inceludina cross-cuttina ones). 
SATT 
Scientific Qualification Plan 
(ScQP) 
Scientific Validation Plan 
(SCcVP) 
5ci. MultiYear Prod. Validation Plan 
‚SCMYVP)} 
Quality Information Document 
(QuID) 
Synthesis Quality Overview 
(SQO) 
Reflects PQ qualification procedures performed by Production Centres during the Pre-Operational 
Aualification Phase, describing the full set of tools, methodologies, and data used to: perform tests, 
/erify non regression hypothesis and assess reliability/performance of proposed “N+1” future 
VSieMmMs. 
Describes the PQ routine verification procedure performed by each Production Centre for all their NRT 
products using its current operational systems. 
Document specific for MY products (ie., reanalyses or reprocessed), describing metrics dedicated to: 
» the identification of main biases and suspicious trends in the time-series of MYPs, RAN or REP 
products, 
» the characterization of the overall “ocean representativity” (in terms of main scales and ocean 
features variabilitv) depicted by the MY products. 
-nd-Use? 
Documents lavaljlable foreach catalogue prodüct! 
Document dedicated to Users. Describes the quality of a specific product. It is a «static and com- 
orehensive» document, informing on the scientific information provided by producers about how a 
aroduct Is created and evaluated and its accuracv level 
Homogenized short summary of PQ, general users oriented; (New document; SQOs prepared for all 
products at the end of Copernicus 1; to be published in Copernicus 2). 
Table 1: List of reference, internal and user-oriented documents related to the CMEMS PQ process. Status of the PQ documentation (at the 
and of Copernicus 
3. THE PRODUCT QUALITY ROADMAP: 
FORESEEN CHALLENGES FOR COPERNICUS 2 
The evolution of the Copernicus Marine Service PQ 
processes will continue in the framework of Copernicus 
2 with the main objective to keep up-to-date the PQ- 
processes currently in place. Hence, required uparades 
will be performed to: 
-extend PQ info available (both for producers and end- 
users), and 
- include any new observational data source or evolved 
model product in PQ processes. 
A roadmap for post-2021 scenario that includes, among 
others, the following objectives and working lines: 
- Increase the current offer of PQ information for users. 
To this aim, there will be a continuous evolution of 
the new PQ-Dashboard, increasing the number of 
metrics shown and improving the interface to meet 
additional user needs (feedback from users on the PQ- 
Dashboard will be collected to for future evolutions), 
- strengthen operational links between producers and 
scientific quality experts, enhancing timeliness of 
quality information with the objective of achieving PQ 
responses closer to production/delivery times (in NRT 
terms for observing and forecasting products and on 
a monthly basis for the MY products), 
extend the currently available PQ processes to 
generate more metrics; defining more pertinent 
skill scores for forecasts; and implementing new 
approaches to validate the new very high-resolution 
products and biogeochemical model products (the 
validation of the latest is currently quite limited due to 
a lack of reference observational products, especially 
on a NRT basis), 
the promotion/viewing of external quality metrics. 
Actions to increase the number of metrics shall come 
along a prior analysis and discussion about the design 
of new metrics to integrate and meet specific users’ 
views and needs, 
- streamlining of PQ documentation (specially the 
review process) focusing on fit-for-purpose and user- 
oriented. New SQO documents (already delivered 
internally for products in 2020 and 2021) will be 
available to users. Furthermore, QUIDs will evolve: 
as they are eminently scientific, very technical and.