FERRYBOXES WITHIN EUROPE: STATE-OF-THE-ART AND INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN OCEAN OBSERVATION SYSTEM (EOOS)

The development and use of FerryBox systems as a cost-effective instrument for continuous observations of the marine environment has been well established since more than 15 years. The systems have evolved to maturity and are since widely used around the coastal ocean of Europe. The availability of newly developed sensors allows the extension of FerryBox measurements to more biogeochemical parameters which are of interest for the requirements of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The FerryBox community initially formed from the partners of an EU funded FerryBox project provides mutual exchange of experience and is now organized within EuroGOOS as a so called FerryBox Task Team (www.ferrybox.org). Within the EU funded infrastructure projects JERICO and JERICO-NEXT the technical harmonization as well as the developing of best practise guides for FerryBox systems have been a step further to high quality environmental data products. Within JERICO-NEXT it has been decided to build up a common FerryBox database and data portal in order to make the FerryBox data more available and visible. Furthermore this database will be function as a close link to the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Services (CMEMS) and the EMODnet portal