Pierre-Yves Le Traon received the 2016 Price “Les Etoiles de l’Europe” from the French government for the E-AIMS project on the 5^th of December 2016.

This price rewards and highlights the European engagement of researchers, illustrated by project successfully completed.

E-AIMS (Euro-Argo Improvements for the GMES Marine Service) was a 2 years FP7 project, coordinated by Ifremer (France) gathering 16 partners from 9 European countries, that ended in December 2015. The main objective of the project was to conduct R&D activities on Argo float technology, Argo data centers and the design of the new phase of Argo to better answer existing and future needs of the Copernicus Marine Service.

E-AIMS organized an end-to-end evaluation of new Argo floats (floats equipped with biogeochemical sensors and Deep floats, able to dive up to 4000m depth). Float characteristics were specified and float design or sensor adaptation activities were carried out. These new floats were ordered to float manufacturers, tested, deployed at sea and a detailed analysis of their data was carried out. European Argo data centers were, in parallel, adapted so that they can handle them. Observing System Evaluations and Simulation Experiments were also conducted to provide robust recommendations for the next phase of Argo. A real-time demonstration of the utility of these new floats for the Copernicus Marine Service was finally successfully carried out. E-AIMS thus demonstrated the capability of the Euro-Argo infrastructure to conduct R&D driven by Copernicus needs and demonstrated that procurement, deployment and processing of these new floats for Copernicus can be organized at European level. Impact on the Copernicus Marine Service was clearly evidenced.

E-AIMS Final brochure   

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