Special Session 19

SPECIAL SESSION #19

Andrea Merlone

National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM)

• a.merlone@inrim.it

Marc Le Menn

Service hydrographique et océanographique de la Marine (SHOM)

• marc.lemenn@shom.fr

Francesca Rolle

National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM)

• f.rolle@inrim.it

From 2021 to 2025, the European Project MINKE “Metrology for Integrated marine maNagement and Knowledge-transfer nEtwork” brought together key European marine metrology research infrastructures and European National Metrology Institutes to create an innovative ‘quality of oceanographic data’ framework. Best practices, accuracy and completeness of Essential Ocean Variables (EOV) have been the key focus towards adopting a multidimensional framework of improved data quality.

Core objective of MINKE has been the reliability and long-term usability of data coming from ocean observing systems, as a fundamental basis to formulate evidence-based environmental policies. This data reliability is achieved through a strong and sustainable metrological framework, with bridges between the principal communities involved (oceanographic research institutes, national metrological institutes, industry and society).

In this special session, the goals of the project, the successes and open challenges will be presented, also to collect ideas for future cooperations.

Themes of the session include all initiatives linked with (but should not be considered limited to):

• Metrological traceability and uncertainty evaluation for observations of essential ocean variables (EOVs) and essential climate variables (ECVs);
• Measurement challenges and metrological contribution to in situ measurements;
• Best Practices;
• Metrology for marine observing infrastructure;
• Observation systems to support air-sea interactions studies;
• Quality assurance and harmonisation of data;
• Intercomparisons programmes/exercises;
• Assessment of metrological needs for remote sensing for marine and coastal monitoring;
• Building the synergies, networking and organisational aspects, also linking with industry.

Andrea Merlone, PhD, is Research Manager at the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM). He is chair of the Working Group Environment of the Consultative Committee for Thermometry (CCT) of BIPM and of the Expert Team “Measurements Uncertainties” of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He also serves as Co-Chair of the Task Group “Air Temperature” of CCT BIPM and of the “Science and Research group” of the GCOS Surface Reference Network. He launched the EU project MeteoMet, bringing a unique contribution in delivering metrology to the meteorology community and climate science. He promoted and organized the series of international conferences “Metrology for Meteorology and Climate" and organized the “Arctic Metrology Workshop” series. In October 2013 he was awarded the EURAMET impact prize for “[…] the personal role in achieving the exceptional outreach of the MeteoMet project, which brings together key national and international bodies in meteorology and metrology, to new levels of cooperation”. His recent activities ranged from the accurate measurements of phase transitions thermodynamics, to the determinations of the Boltzmann’s constant for the new definition of the kelvin, to a new metrological approach for the traceability of meteorological observations and climate studies.

Marc Le Menn,, Ph.D., received an engineering degree in Physics – Instrumentation from CNAM Paris in 1990, a D.E.A. (post-graduate degree following a Master) in Metrology and Physics Systems and a Ph.D. in Electronics from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO) in 2000. Since 1999, he is in charge of the metrology and chemical oceanography laboratory, he created between 1994 and 1999, at the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the French Navy (SHOM, Brest). Since 2000, he is part-time lecturer at the UBO in the master of Instrumentation and Physics of Sensors and from 2005 to 2014, he was a visiting professor at the University Saint Joseph of Beirut (Lebanon) in the Master of Physics of Sensors. He is author or co-author of 31 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, of 41 conferences in international congress, 2 patents and of 28 communications in French. His passion is to bring metrology into all areas of oceanographic measurement and to improve measurement techniques. Temperature, salinity, sea currents or sea level are the quantities where he has been able to make his contribution.

Francesca Rolle, is a chemist and holds a PhD in “Metrology: Measuring Science and Technique”, from Politecnico of Torino, Italy. She works as a researcher at the Italian Metrology Institute “Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica” (INRiM). Her research activities are in the field of metrology in chemistry, in particular concerning gas analysis, within the INRiM Scientific Division “Applied Metrology and Engineering”. Main interests are the development of analytical methods for the quantification of gaseous atmospheric pollutants, the establishment of correct traceability chains and the uncertainty evaluation. From end 2020, she is one of the Italian representatives in Eurachem and she also served as Eurachem Secretary and Treasurer from 2018 to 2020. She is also the Italian Contact Person in the EURAMET Sub-committee on Gas Analysis of the Technical Committee on Metrology in Chemistry (TC-MC).