Common use of Currents Clause in Contracts

Currents. a major use of current observations is for validating and calibrating the ocean models and products. Although there is a lack of current data in under-ice regions in the Arctic, there are many current profile and surface current data which have not been collected for Copernicus use. Some of these have been identified in section 3.3. HF radar can be an effective tool to fill the gaps in surface offshore currents monitoring. Biogeochemical profiles (nutrients, oxygen, chl-a, backscattering coefficient, carbon) Biogeochemical (BGC) in situ data in the Arctic are less than 10% of the T/S profiles. Oxygen is the most closely associated with T/S profiles. Other biogeochemical parameters are much less frequently measured then oxygen. Moorings may have oxygen sensors loaded but rarely other BGC variables. BioArgo floats can measure oxygen, chl-a, nitrate, suspended particles, downward irradiance and pH but they do not necessarily measure all the parameters. For BioArgo operated in the Arctic region, all of them have oxygen sensors but only 2-3 of them measure chl-a. Most of the BGC profiles are measured by research vessels while the data are assembled and disseminated in a late stage via ICES, SeaDataNet, WOD and GLODAPv2. This counts for about 4000 oxygen profiles, 2000 chl-a profiles and 500-1000 nutrient profiles per year. The oxygen data spread in all Arctic ice-free waters except for the Russian side. Chl-a and nutrients are mainly measured in the Nordic Seas. More data are available from iAOS but may have restricted access. In summary, even for ice-free waters, significant data gaps exist for BGC parameters, mainly due to lack of data but also due to restrictions on accessing the existing data.