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The Mediterranean community represented in this paper is the result of more than 30 years of EU and nationally funded coordination, which has led to key contributions in science concepts and operational initiatives. Together with the establishment of operational services, the community has coordinated with universities, research centers, research infrastructures and private companies to implement advanced multi-platform and integrated observing and forecasting systems that facilitate the advancement of operational services, scientific achievements and mission-oriented innovation. Thus, the community can respond to societal challenges and stakeholders needs, developing a variety of fit-for-purpose services such as the Copernicus Marine Service. The combination of state-of-the-art observations and forecasting provides new opportunities for downstream services in response to the needs of the heavily populated Mediterranean coastal areas and to climate change. The challenge over the next decade is to sustain ocean observations within the research community, to monitor the variability at small scales, e.g., the mesoscale/submesoscale, to resolve the sub-basin/seasonal and inter-annual variability in the circulation, and thus establish the decadal variability, understand and correct the model-associated biases and to enhance model-data integration and ensemble forecasting for uncertainty estimation. Better knowledge and understanding of the level of Mediterranean variability will enable a subsequent evaluation of the impacts and mitigation of the effect of human activities and climate change on the biodiversity and the ecosystem, which will support environmental assessments and decisions. Further challenges include extending the science-based added-value products into societal relevant downstream services and engaging with communities to build initiatives that will contribute to the 2030 Agenda and more specifically to SDG14 and the UN's Decade of Ocean Science for sustai

The WMO-IOC Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) has devised a coordination mechanism for the fit-for-purpose delivery of an end-to-end system, from ocean observations to met-ocean operational services. This paper offers a complete overview of the activities carried out by JCOMM and the status of the achievements up to 2018. The JCOMM stakeholders consist of the research and operational institutions of WMO members and the IOC member states, which mandated JCOMM to devise an international strategy to move toward the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The three areas of activity are the Observation Program Area (OPA), the Data Management Program Area (DMPA) and the Services and Forecasting Services Program Area (SFSPA), and several expert teams have been established to contribute to the international coordination efforts. OPA is organized into observing networks connected by different observing technologies, DMPA organizes the overall near-real time and delayed mode data assembly, and the delivery methodology and architecture, and the SFSPA coordinates the met-ocean services resulting from the observations and data management. Future developments should enhance coordination in these three program areas by considering the inclusion of new and emergent observing technologies, the interoperability of met-ocean data assembly centers and the establishment of efficient research to operations protocols, in addition to better fit-for-purpose customized services in both the public and private sectors.

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet's ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into "Ocean Best Practices." While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org ) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Usin

Climate change and sustainable use of natural capital demand increased collaboration across the sciences. The first steps for effective collaboration often focus on improving interoperability between observation and analyses methodologies. This is traditionally done through a combination of standards and best practices. The ocean observation community and observing infrastructures - with regionally diverse members working in physics, chemistry, biology and engineering - is looking toward a dynamic consensus-building approach to match the rapid pace of technological evolution. This is an essential part of the long-term cooperation among ocean observing infrastructures. In the last 12 months, the ocean observing community has implemented an Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). This System was recently adopted by the Intergovernmental Ocean Commission as an international project under GOOS and IODE. The System consists of a permanent OBPS repository hosted by IODE with state-of-the-art semantic discovery and metadata indexing for improved access to best practices and, eventually, to the data associated with them. There have been discussions to understand how to deal with differing best practices and standards on the same observation or analyses objective and other issues that arise from a comprehensive ocean best practices system. A recent survey, to be described, offers options on alternative approaches. Further, we have created a forum, in “Frontiers in Marine Science” for discussion of best practices and their applications. This presentation will cover options for evolving and sustaining ocean best practices across infrastructures. The recommendations build upon the community survey, the OGC experience, the outcomes of the OceanObs’19 conference as well as inputs from the Decade for Ocean Sciences community meetings. The extension of this work to other communities will also be examined.

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Testor, P., de Young, B., Rudnick, D. L., Glenn, S., Hayes, D., Lee, C. M., Pattiaratchi, C., Hill, K., Heslop, E., Turpin, V., Alenius, P., Barrera, C., Barth, J. A., Beaird, N., Becu, G., Bosse, A., Bourrin, F., Brearley, J. A., Chao, Y., Chen, S., Chiggiato, J., Coppola, L., Crout, R., Cummings, J., Curry, B., Curry, R., Davis, R., Desai, K., DiMarco, S., Edwards, C., Fielding, S., Fer, I., Frajka-Williams, E., Gildor, H., Goni, G., Gutierrez, D., Haugan, P., Hebert, D., Heiderich, J., Henson, S., Heywood, K., Hogan, P., Houpert, L., Huh, S., Inall, M. E., Ishii, M., Ito, S., Itoh, S., Jan, S., Kaiser, J., Karstensen, J., Kirkpatrick, B., Klymak, J., Kohut, J., Krahmann, G., Krug, M., McClatchie, S., Marin, F., Mauri, E., Mehra, A., Meredith, M. P., Meunier, T., Miles, T., Morell, J. M., Mortier, L., Nicholson, S., O'Callaghan, J., O'Conchubhair, D., Oke, P., Pallas-Sanz, E., Palmer, M., Park, J., Perivoliotis, L., Poulain, P., Perry, R., Queste, B., Rainville, L., Rehm, E., Roughan, M., Rome, N., Ross, T., Ruiz, S., Saba, G., Schaeffer, A., Schonau, M., Schroeder, K., Shimizu, Y., Sloyan, B. M., Smeed, D., Snowden, D., Song, Y., Swart, S., Tenreiro, M., Thompson, A., Tintore, J., Todd, R. E., Toro, C., Venables, H., Wagawa, T., Waterman, S., Watlington, R. A., & Wilson, D. OceanGliders: A component of the integrated GOOS. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 422, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00422., The OceanGliders program started in 2016 to support active coordination and enhancement of global glider activity. OceanGliders contributes to the international efforts of the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) for Climate, Ocean Health, and Operational Services. It brings together marine scientists and engineers operating gliders around the world: (1) to observe the long-term physical, biogeochemical, and biological ocean processes and phenomena that are relevant for societal applications; and, (2) to contribute to the GOOS through real-time and delayed mode data dissemination. The OceanGliders program is distributed across national and regional observing systems and significantly contributes to integrated, multi-scale and multi-platform sampling strategies. OceanGliders shares best practices, requirements, and scientific knowledge needed for glider operations, data collection and analysis. It also monitors global glider activity and supports the dissemination of glider data through regional and global databases, in real-time and delayed modes, facilitating data access to the wider community. OceanGliders currently supports national, regional and global initiatives to maintain and expand the capabilities and application of gliders to meet key global challenges such as improved measurement of ocean boundary currents, water transformation and storm forecast., The editorial team would like to recognize the support of the global glider community to this paper. Our requests for data and information were met with enthusiasm and welcome contributions from around the globe, clearly demonstrating to us a point made in this paper that there are many active and dedicated teams of glider operators and users. We should also acknowledge the support that OceanGliders has received from the WMO/IOC JCOMM-OCG and JCOMMOPS that have allowed this program to develop, encouraging us to articulate a vision for the role of gliders in the GOOS. We acknowledge support from the EU Horizon 2020 AtlantOS project funded under grant agreement No. 633211 and gratefully acknowledge the many agencies and programs that have supported underwater gliders: AlterEco, ANR, CFI, CIGOM, CLASS Ellet Array, CNES, CNRS/INSU, CONACyT, CSIRO, DEFRA, DFG/SFB-754, DFO, DGA, DSTL, ERC, FCO, FP7, and H2020 Europen Commission, HIMIOFoTS, Ifremer, IMOS, IMS, IOOS, IPEV, IRD, Israel MOST, JSPS, MEOPAR, NASA, NAVOCEANO (Navy), NERC, NFR, NJDEP, NOAA, NRC, NRL, NSF, NSERC, ONR, OSNAP, Taiwan MOST, SANAP-NRF, SENER, SIMS, Shell Exploration and Production Company, Sorbonne Université, SSB, UKRI, UNSW, Vettleson, Wallenberg Academy Fellowship, and WWF.

Hydrographic changes in the western Mediterranean Sea (WMED), which is connected to the North Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, may affect the global ocean thermohaline circulation. The Western Intermediate Water (WIW) is a regional water mass which is formed through winter convection processes in the north WMED. The variations of WIW characteristics are hardly detectable by the conventional criterion as defined in the literature and have been poorly addressed. This study introduces an innovative geometry-based method to properly detect WIW. New insights into changes in WIW properties are obtained by applying this method to glider data in the Ibiza Channel and numerical simulation in the whole WMED. Seasonal and interannual variations as well as positive trends in temperature and salinity leading to negative trend in density are highlighted in the Balearic Sea and Gulf of Lion. The basin-scale simulation also shows the spatio-temporal variability of WIW characteristics in the WMED under the influence of the location of formation site, local and regional atmospheric fluctuations, vertical mixing, horizontal advection and mixing with surrounding waters.

In the last 10 years, new monitoring and modelling technologies have emerged allowing real-time observation and forecasting of the coastal ocean at regional and local scales. These technologies are at the core of multi-platform integrated observing and forecasting systems, such as the Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB). New capabilities to characterise the state of the ocean and its variability at finer spatial and temporal scales are emerging, supporting science and products for society. SOCIB has a well-defined mission to deliver ocean observing for the benefit of science and society. From initiation in 2010, SOCIB has provided high-quality, free and open data. In order to increase our utility, we developed a Products and Services Strategy rooted in business best practice. Ten sectors–groups of users with common data needs–were identified, for which SOCIB has information and knowledge of high value. Dedicated products were developed in cooperation with the end-users: beach lifeguards/managers and sustainable marine resources managers. We illustrate an integrative approach, combining business concepts with collaborative software development methodologies and ocean observing science, to turn ocean observations and forecasts into products and services, with benefits for society in the sustainable blue economy era.

We present data collected in the framework of the Algerian BAsin Circulation Unmanned Survey (ABACUS) project. The main objective of ABACUS is the monitoring of the basin circulation and of the surface and intermediate water masses' physical and biological properties in a key region of the Mediterranean Sea circulation. Data presented here have been collected through deep glider cruises in the Western Mediterranean Sea during the autumns of 2014, 2015 and 2016; activities at sea are expected to be repeated during the coming years, so that the dataset will be extended. Glider missions were conducted in the Algerian Basin, between the island of Mallorca and the Algerian coast. Across the three glider missions, eight repeated transects were completed which enabled us to investigate the basin-scale circulation and the presence of mesoscale structures, utilising both the adaptive sampling capabilities of the gliders and the higher resolution of the data. After collection, all data passed a quality control procedure and were then made available through an unrestricted repository host by the SOCIB Data Centre at https://doi.org/10.25704/b200-3vf5. The actual dataset spans three autumn seasons, providing an important contribution to the data collection in the chronically undersampled Algerian Basin. Temperature and salinity data collected in the first 975¿m of the water column allowed us to identify the main water masses and describe their characteristics, improving the understanding of the dynamics of the region. On the timescale of the project, data show a large variability in the surface layer and reduced variability in the intermediate and deep layers. Our measurements have been successfully compared to data previously collected in the area from 1909 to 2011. Results showed similar overall distribution, ranges and variability to the historical data, with no outliers in the surface or deep layers.

Target audience: All ocean scientists who wish to share or discover best practice documents in their domain. Background: A working group convened under the AtlantOS project and including partners from ODIP, IODE, JCOMM, IEEE, and AWI is currently developing new technologies and approaches for handling best practices (BPs) across ocean science. The goal of the working group is to create a sustained repository for BPs, to ease their propagation and adoption. Goals: After briefly describing its work, the BP working group will engage town hall participants in a discussion on 1) how best to find and centrally archive BPs in participants' disciplines and 2) what capacities a central archive of BPs would need to help participants create, discover, share, and archive their BPs. The participant input gathered will be used to further the development of a multidisciplinary repository for BPs and better harmonise ocean observation.

During winter 2012–2013, open‐ocean deep convection which is a major driver for the thermohaline circulation and ventilation of the ocean, occurred in the Gulf of Lions (Northwestern Mediterranean Sea) and has been thoroughly documented thanks in particular to the deployment of several gliders, Argo profiling floats, several dedicated ship cruises, and a mooring array during a period of about a year. Thanks to these intense observational efforts, we show that deep convection reached the bottom in winter early in February 2013 in a area of maximum 28 ± 3 . We present new quantitative results with estimates of heat and salt content at the subbasin scale at different time scales (on the seasonal scale to a 10 days basis) through optimal interpolation techniques, and robust estimates of the deep water formation rate of 2.0 . We provide an overview of the spatiotemporal coverage that has been reached throughout the seasons this year and we highlight some results based on data analysis and numerical modeling that are presented in this special issue. They concern key circulation features for the deep convection and the subsequent bloom such as Submesoscale Coherent Vortices (SCVs), the plumes, and symmetric instability at the edge of the deep convection area.

There is an ever-present need for the identification and dissemination of best practices in the multidisciplinary field of ocean observation. However, the complexity of this domain and the diversity of its stakeholders make discovering relevant best practices (BP) a considerable challenge. Addressing this challenge rests upon a) the creation of a basic resource for the efficient discovery and access of documented best practices and b) the acquisition and management of sufficient best practice documentation. A trusted and stable archive location is needed as a focal point for the community, harmonizing the formats of best practice documents and ensuring their contents are exposed to the Web. Further, the discoverability of content must be augmented using granular indexing while its provenance (including any certification) and value must be exposed to support scientists in their search for appropriate methods. This paper presents our efforts in creating a centralized and well-indexed OceanBestPractices repository, implemented to provide sustained access to community-endorsed methodologies for ocean observation. The repository is being built to expose documents to the Web and semantically index these for improved discovery using established and emerging ontologies. The repository's design will leverage persistent identifiers - such as “Open Researcher and Contributor IDs” (ORCIDs) for human agents and “International Geo Sample Numbers” (IGSNs) for samples - to facilitate distributed and stable searches across repositories. The initial results are described of semantically indexing best practice documents that have been transferred to granular, web-accessible formats, allowing comparison of related methods from multiple communities. The first two focus areas for a pilot demonstration are sensor design and data management and specific examples in each area are selected for presentation.

We present a complete set of freely available MATLAB/Octave scripts called the SOCIB Glider Toolbox (https://github.com/socib/glider_toolbox). This new toolbox automates glider data processing functions, including thermal lag correction, quality control and graphical outputs. While the scientific value of the glider platform has been proven, the experience for the glider data user is far from perfect or routine. Over the last 10 years, ocean gliders have evolved such that they are now considered as a core component of multi-platform observing systems and multi-disciplinary process studies; we now have a generic processing system that appropriately complements glider capability.In an ideal world, a simple connection to a glider would provide oceanographic data ready for scientific application in an intuitive, familiar format; the reality has been somewhat different. Up till now users have faced several time-consuming tasks that prevent them from directly and efficiently extracting new oceanographic knowledge from the acquired data. The SOCIB glider toolbox covers all stages of the data management process, including: metadata aggregation, raw data download, data processing, data correction and the automatic generation of data products and figures. It is designed to be operated either in real-time or in delayed mode, and to process data from two of the most widely used and commercially exploited glider platforms, Slocum gliders and SeaGliders. The SOCIB glider toolbox is ready to accelerate glider data integration and promote oceanographic discovery.