Monitoring the NW Mediterranean using coupled biogeochemical-physical platforms

Fabrizio D'Ortenzio¹, Katarzyna Niewiadomska¹, Hervé Claustre¹, David Antoine¹, Pierre Testor<sup>2

1</sup>. Laboratoire D'Océanographie de Villefranche, Université Pierre et Marie Curie et CNRS, Villefranche sur Mer, France ². LOCEAN-IPSL, Université Pierre et Marie Curie et CNRS, Paris, France

The recent development of miniaturized low-energy sensors capable of retrieving several bio-geochemical or bio-optical parameters (i.e. chlorophyll, POC, CDOM, Oxygen) have been made available for integration on autonomous platforms. Future sensors could include parameters such as nutrients.

In the framework of the French project PROGLO, some of these sensors will be integrated on two different autonomous systems: gliders and profiling floats. These platforms will be deployed in the NW Mediterranean, where a physical and biological sampling station has been active since 1991 (DYFAMED) and a bio-optical buoy has been in operation since 2002 (BOUSSOLE).The main objectives of the observation system is the simultaneously acquisition of high temporal and spatial resolution bio-geochemical data and their derivatives for the purpose of:

1. establishing an operational monitoring system of the bio-geochemical dynamics of the area
2. evaluating the feasibility of an ARGO-like system for bio-geochemical studies
3. calibrating and validating Ocean Color satellite data
4. determining the link between vertical distribution of biomass and its surface signature, as observed from space.

In this presentation, of the operational in situ system is described and some preliminary results obtained from pilot tests are shown.