MARCOAST - Operational marine oil spill and water quality monitoring services

The MARCOAST partnership, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Service Element Programme is providing operational oil spill and water quality monitoring services, using products derived from satellite remote sensing data combined with models and in-situ measurements. This paper provides a brief overview of the ESA GMES Service Element programme, describes the services being offered by the MARCOAST partnership, and discusses how the MARCOAST project is meeting the key challenge of making the transition from research to operational application of satellite remote sensing data. The aim of this paper is twofold: To raise awareness of the purpose, aims and future plans of the ESA/EC GMES programme, in terms of the development and provision of marine services, and to provide a technical overview of the operational services offered by MARCOAST, so that Oceans '07 participants can take a view on their potential utility with regard to their own operational needs.