POSEIDON: marine environmental, monitoring, forecasting and information system for Greek waters

POSEIDON is a comprehensive marine monitoring, forecasting and information system in the field of operational oceanography, aiming to enhance environmental surveillance, protect the marine ecosystem and respond to environmental disasters, and to provide the decision makers and other users real-time data upon which to base their decisions. Furthermore, the POSEIDON system also fits the plans of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and particularly that of EuroGOOS (for Europe), having three principal objectives: (i) real time continuous meteorological and oceanographic observations, (ii) data management and evaluation, and (iii) data and information distribution and associated forecasting services. The environmental surveillance is primarily based upon oceanographic buoys. These buoys could be equipped with sensors to monitor air pressure, air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, radioactivity, light transmission (suspended particulate matter), wave height and period, surface currents, salinity, temperature, oxygen, chlorophyll, and nutrient salts. The transfer of data from the buoys to the master control station, based in NCMR (Athens), will be committed either by satellite and/or cellular communication systems. After data management and evaluation, the information and forecasts produced will be made available to the users