PLOCAN, as operator of the Regional Facility (RF) of the European Multidisciplinary Observatory for the Study of the Seafloor and Water Column (EMSO) in the Canary Islands, presented at the EMSO ERIC Executive Committee meeting held in Rome, the status of the ocean observatory and future plans, including the incorporation of the Canary Islands Ocean Time Series Station (ESTOC) as a station of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). The presentation was given by Eric Delory, head of the PLOCAN Observatory.
The RF EMSO Canary RF consists of the ESTOC station, a multidisciplinary fixed-point observing system that has produced up to 30 years of oceanographic data, down to 3670m depth, also supported by seasonal visits of PLOCAN’s autonomous deep gliding vehicles (ocean gliders) and external collaborations from several institutes in Europe.
The European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory aims to explore the oceans, to gain a better understanding of the phenomena occurring within them, at their bottoms and sub-seabed, and to explain the fundamental role these phenomena play in the broader Earth systems.
EMSO consists of a system of regional facilities located at key sites in Europe, from the northeast to the central-east Atlantic, through the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The observatories are platforms equipped with multiple sensors, placed along the water column and on the seafloor. They constantly measure different biogeochemical and physical parameters, which address natural hazards, climate change and marine ecosystems. EMSO provides data and services to a large and diverse group of users, from scientists and industries to institutions and authorities. It is an outstanding infrastructure to provide relevant information for science-based environmental policy making.
