Plymouth Ocean Forecasting Centre - projects
Learn more about our research
Our research projects
Browse this page to learn more about Plymouth Ocean Forecasting Centre's current research projects. To view our portfolio of past projects, please visit our Project Archive page.
UAE Ocean fieldwork
UAE Ocean
UAE Ocean is a £4M project delivering ocean forecasting capability for the United Arab Emirates. The project was developed by the Plymouth Ocean Forecasting Centre (POFC) as lead partner, working with the Met Office, the Royal Navy, CENORE, National Oceanography Centre and the Joint Operational Meteorology and Oceanography Centre. The project runs from 2014 to 2020 and will deliver a new ocean forecasting centre for the UAE running bespoke ocean models developed in Plymouth. POFC is responsible for training Metereological and Oceanographic Officers to run the new centre, developing scientific capacity which did not previously exist in the UAE.
Water budget and sea level in the Dead Sea
This British Council project will investigate why sea level in the Dead Sea is dropping and will forecast future changes. It will be delivered with the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, the Israel National Institute of Oceanography and the University of Jordan. The STREAM Trilateral Research Programme supports partnerships between the UK, Israel and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. The programme aims to increase the uptake of environmental research in some of the world’s most water poor societies.
Update October 2018 - Creation of Web page via Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research (IOLR)
Professor Georgy Shapiro with Dr Isaac Gertman of the Israel Oceanographic Research Institute
Exxon Mobil - modelling currents in the Black Sea
POFC was awarded this significant commercial project by multi-national oil company, ExxonMobil. The project builds on POFC's extensive experience of ocean modelling in the Black Sea. It is part of ExxonMobil’s offshore project, Neptun Deep, in the western Black Sea off the Romanian coast. The oil giant requested a study of the bottom currents on the north-western shelf of the Black Sea using a 'Regional Ocean Circulation Model' – and the POFC's modelling study proposal was selected as the only viable option.
Black Sea Checkpoint - environmental monitoring
The Black Sea faces environmental challenges including pollution, eutrophication and biodiversity loss. POFC is contributing EU-funded work to improve the marine environment as part of the European Marine Observation and Data Network. Black Sea Checkpoint brings together data from a wide range of sources to improve knowledge about environmental change in the Black Sea and to respond to the problems it faces. POFC is the work package leader for Challenge 5: Coasts, coordinating the collection and assessment of oceanographic data along the Black Sea coasts.
Training for Meteorological and Oceanographic specialists
POFC has developed a comprehensive Continuing Professional Development course designed to fast-track Meteorological and Oceanographic (METOC) specialists. The course runs alongside the UAE Ocean project to provide the expertise required to operate the new UAE Ocean Centre. The course offers a complete basic training in oceanography with additional modelling courses. It is delivered jointly with the School of Biological and Marine Sciences at Plymouth and includes modules from the University's BSc courses, with the addition of bespoke ocean modelling modules delivered by members of the POFC team.
Shelf Sea Oceanography and Meteorology research group
The Shelf Sea Oceanography and Meteorology (SSOM) research group was part of the Marine Institute. The group's main objectives were to understand and predict physical processes, which exchange matter and energy across the continental shelves, and to provide underpinning research for biogeochemical studies of coastal and shelf waters.
Due to restructuring of the research activities the SSOM group ceased to operate from July 2010.
