Met Office

The Met Office is one of the world's leading providers of environmental and weather-related services. Its solutions and services meet the needs of many communities of interest, from the general public, government and schools, through broadcasters and online media, to civil aviation and almost every other industry sector - in the UK and around the world.

The main contributions to NCOF from the Met Office will be:

• capabilities to produce and disseminate marine and ocean forecasts on an operational (routine, timely and robust) basis;
• technical expertise in the development and transition into operation of systems for deep ocean, shelf-seas, surface wave and sea-ice forecasts;
• scientific expertise in ocean, shelf-seas, surface wave and sea-ice models, the assimilation of data and the assessment of forecasts;
• experience in liaising with and delivering weather and oceanographic forecasts and services to a wide range of government and commercial agencies.

More about NCOF at the Met Office

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) is a Research Centre wholly owned and managed by NERC. POL provides services that underpin national operational functions (for example, coastal flood forecasting) and undertakes a NERC-funded strategic research programme in ocean physics and geodesy. POL's main contributions to NCOF will be expertise in:

• sea level science, including the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility;
• modelling and measurement of the physical processes in ocean margin seas;
• developing model infrastructure for coupling physical processes, biogeochemical processes and ecosystems;
• marine data management, including the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

More about NCOF at POL

Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is a multi-disciplinary marine research organisation concerned with the functioning of marine ecosystems. PML is now independent of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) but is formally designated as a NERC Collaborative Centre. PML's main contributions to NCOF will be expertise in:

• ecosystem modelling;
• satellite and airborne remote sensing;
• specialist observation, data analysis and model validation.

More about NCOF at PML

NERC Environmental Systems Science Centre

The Environmental Systems Science Centre (ESSC) is a NERC funded Earth Observation Centre focused on modelling and assimilation of EO data into models of the Earth System. The Centre is part of the 5* Environmental science research programme at Reading University. The Marine Informatics and e-Science programmes within ESSC, lead by Prof. Keith Haines, have made important contributions to ocean forecasting in the areas of data assimilation and data dissemination, and these will provide the focus of ESSC's NCOF activities.

More about NCOF at ESSC

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) is a joint venture between the University of Southampton and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is one of the few world-class centres of excellence in ocean sciences, earth sciences and ocean technology. NOCS's NCOF activities will draw on established expertise in:

• numerical modelling of the global ocean;
• biogeochemical ocean modelling;
• satellite remote sensing;
• ocean observing systems.

More about NCOF at NOCS