EUMETNET – SURFMAR

The E-SURFMAR programme coordinates European efforts to maintain and enhance marine surface observation networks.
The programme focuses on three main areas:

• maintaining a network of over 150 drifting buoys operating across the North Atlantic and European waters;
  
• supporting and harmonising European moored buoy activities; and
  
• streamlining observations from the Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) network.
  

Although primarily focused on the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, E-SURFMAR is progressively expanding its network to include equatorial and Arctic regions.

E-SURFMAR’s activities encompass the development and provision of marine surface monitoring tools, quality control of the drifting buoy network, and research and development initiatives related to on-board weather stations, drifting buoys, and moored buoys.

The programme also provides support to OceanOPS, the joint centre of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), which coordinates the global in-situ ocean observing networks, in the management of marine observation metadata.
E-SURFMAR also contributes to the maintenance of ship-based visual observation software used by voluntary observing ships.

In addition, E-SURFMAR facilitates knowledge exchange concerning ships and voluntary observing buoys, and maintains close cooperation with relevant international bodies such as the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP) and the WMO Ship Observations Team (SOT).

The programme also monitors the development of emerging marine observing systems, including unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).