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LE TRAON, P.Y., BAHUREL, P., CROSNIER, L., DELAMARCHE, A., DREVILLON, M., 
DRILLET, Y., DURAND E., FABARDINES, M., GARCIA-HERMOSA, I., MELET, A., REPPUCCI, A., 
SOTILLO, M.G, VON SCHUCKMANN, K. 
This introduction paper provides an overview of the 
Copernicus Marine Service implementation, architecture 
and organization as well as an overall assessment of 
achievements during the 2015-2021 period. The components 
of the Copernicus Marine Service are: 
Thematic Assembly Centers (TACs), 
- Monitoring and Forecasting Centers (MFCs), 
Central Information System (CIS) and Dissemination 
Unit (DU), 
User Service. 
These components, along with cross-cutting coordination 
activities (dedicated to scientific evolution, product quality, 
multi-year processing, ocean reporting and user uptake) are 
detailed in the different papers of this special issue. 
INTRODUCTIOP 
The Copernicus Marine Service is one of the six pillar 
services of the European Union’s Copernicus programme. 
Mercator Ocean International (MOi) was entrusted at the 
end of 2014 by the European Union to implement the 
operational phase of the service from 2015 to 2021. After 
six years of operations, the Copernicus Marine Service Is 
recognized internationally as one of the most advanced 
service capacity in ocean monitoring and forecasting. So 
far, it has convinced more than thirty thousand expert 
services and users worldwide. 
The Copernicus Marine Service provides regular and 
systematic reference information on the physical (blue) 
and biogeochemical (green) ocean and sea-ice (white) 
state for the European regional seas and the global ocean 
‚Figure 1). This capacity encompasses the description 
of the current situation (analysis), the prediction of the 
situation 10 days ahead (forecast), and the provision of 
zonsistent retrospective data records (reprocessing for 
in situ and satellite measurements, and reanalysis data). 
"he development of the Copernicus Marine Service has 
required collaboration and innovation across research 
and technology, in observations, modelling, assimilation, 
reporting, and product and service delivery. This European 
Union service is unique In the world for: 
- its coverage and comprehensiveness, 
- its balance between state-of-the-art science anc 
operational commitments, 
the consistency of its portfolio where satellite observations, 
in situ observations, and 3D model simulations are 
proposed in a coherent way to describe the ocean