PECO2: Partnership for Operational Oceanography
The PECO2 project is funded by the Research Council of Norway INPART program for 3-years from 2021 through 2023 and shall strengthen international partnerships in operational oceanography and marine services.
Objectives
The PECO2 project aims to share advanced knowledge and experiences in operational oceanography accumulated through projects involving partners from South-Africa, China, France, India and Norway and develop this into a collaboration platform in support to education and training in operational oceanography and marine services. PECO2 will attempt to provide an overall framework to develop a consolidated base of education and training for operational oceanography. In the long term, it aims to improve the quality of education and help train the next generation of experts in operational oceanography, enabling them to apply multi-disciplinary information products to address complex marine issues in coastal and marine environmental monitoring and forecasting.
It will also improve cooperation between the partner countries, reinforcing international links and stimulating new ideas and research collaborations. In each participating country the PECO2 project will also become an important building block in support to the growing need for routine production and delivery of coastal and ocean information with societal benefit, notably in sectors such as: Maritime Safety, Marine Environment, Marine Resources and Climate Change.
Project Summary
The 3-years PECO2 project is implemented through three distinct workpackages targeting operational oceanography, notably:
- WP1: Review needs and opportunities for research cooperation & training
- WP2: Prepare and offer a training programme including a summer school
- WP3: Development of curriculum
A key part of WP2 will be the Advanced Ocean Training Course, run jointly with the European Space Agency, on board the tall-ship, Statsraad Lehmkuhl as it sails from Maputo, Mozambique to Cape Town, South Africa in January 2023. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the operational oceanography in practice using onboard collected data from the variety of scientific instruments, together with inspection of near-real time satellite data, ocean numerical model fields and virtual platforms for data analysis.
Partners
The PECO2 project partners are:
- NERSC, Norway (coordinator)
- Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Norway
- Nansen Environmental Research Centre-India (NERCI), India
- Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), India
- Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre (NZU), China
- Institute for Atmospheric Physics (IAP), China
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa
- Nansen-Tutu Center/University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche sur l'Environnement Atmosphérique (CEREA), France
Peer Review Publications
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. Impact of the Agulhas Current on Southern Africa Precipitation: A Modeling Study. Journal of Climate. 2021;34(24).
