Copernicus Data Use for Summer School and Master Field Training in Oceanography (Coastal and Open Ocean)

The aim of this action is to produce material (courses with practical works) for summer schools and masters in Oceanography organized by two CNRS research entities based in Toulouse (CNRS-OMP - Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées and CNRS-LEGOS) using interactively Copernicus data and facilities. This material will be available on the web for other users.

Universities and research centres are educating and training students, which are the future researchers and professional of the industry and the services. It is thus a good place to propose dedicated material using new technologies to support education towards an extended use of the Copernicus Services. We propose to develop a series of training tools for marine applications using available products of the Copernicus Program, for a series of coastal to open ocean targeted applications of interest (e.g., extreme events, pollution, marine environment degradation and monitoring of the global change). These tools will be developed in the frame of new Copernicus DIAS access facilities scheduled in the very near future.

Based on our previous experience, we will develop several marine applications (see below) in coastal zones with training tools using available products of the Copernicus Program (model outputs, satellite products, etc.) within our masters and organized summer schools developed through our international collaborations. LEGOS is or has been involved in several international joint research laboratories (called LMI) or joint teams: LMI-ICEMASA2 with Cape Town University, LMI-ÉCLAIRS with different universities in Western Africa especially CIPMA-University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), TAPIOCA (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil), LOTUS (University of Sciences and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam), and RELIFOME with University of Douala (Cameroun). LEGOS has already established fruitful cooperation with these universities and laboratories. Access to free Copernicus observations (e.g.: altimetry, ocean colour data) and model outputs is a high potential for developing oceanographic sciences and coastal applications in these countries using Copernicus Services and tools. The highly qualified students from these countries in the framework of the master degree and summer school (see below some examples) will be the potential users of Copernicus Services in their respective future jobs/positions. The overall CNRS-LEGOS contribution will contribute to establish a network of Copernicus Intermediate users worldwide.

Actions includes following activities:

1) Based on a very fruitful past experience, we propose to develop new training examples based on Copernicus products for the study on the tropical Atlantic region, on particular: sea level change and coastal erosion descriptions; ocean conditions for specific endemic ecosystem species (corals) or specific coastal fish farming industry; etc.

2) We will use the material of the first action for the practical work within the Master in Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate sciences at University of Toulouse (Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, France). The students of this master will use the facilities of Copernicus Services combined with in situ data to analyze specific marine situation and processes.

3) The same kind of applications will also be developed in our two international Masters co-badged with the University of Toulouse.