The Global Atmosphere and Ocean System, Vol. 8, No. 2–3, pp. 119–133 ADVANCEMENT OF OPERATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN GREECE: THE CASE OF THE POSEIDON SYSTEM TAKVOR H. SOUKISSIAN*, GEORGE TH. CHRONIS, KOSTAS NITTIS and CHRYSOULA DIAMANTI National Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, Ag. Kosmas Ellinikon, 166 04 Athens, Greece (Received 12 March 2001; Revised 29 December 2001; Accepted 14 January 2002) Operational Oceanography in Greece has become today a necessity, since it can provide the means and the solutionsonsocietal,economic,environmentalandscientificproblemsrelatedwiththecoastalenvironment. Arationalapproachtotheseproblemscanbebasedonintegratedcoastalzonemanagement,which,inturn,is supportedbythesystematicandcontinuousoperationofmarinemonitoringsystems.Areal-timemonitoring and forecasting system (called the ‘‘POSEIDON’’ system) is currently in operation in the Aegean Sea. The threemaincomponentsofthePOSEIDONsystemare:(a)anintegratedmarinemonitoringnetworkconsist- ing of oceanographic and wave buoys (POSEIDON network), (b) a telecommunication system for real-time data transmission and (c) the Aegean Operational Forecasting System (AOFOS) including a meteorological model,anoffshorewavemodel,ageneralcirculationoceanmodel,asurfacepollutantdispersionmodelanda shallow water wave model. Three years of experience has shown that the POSEIDON system is an essential and necessary tool for developing Operational Oceanography in Greece, being also the only integrated and multipurpose system of this nature in the whole Mediterranean Sea. Keywords: Operational oceanography; Greek Seas; Marine monitoring network 1. OPERATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN GREECE 1.1 General Operational Oceanography is a relatively new activity, which is global in scope. As ‘‘classical’’ Oceanography reaches maturity in the domain of understanding ocean processes and moves fast towards reliable prediction, Operational Oceanography gains special importance and can be considered as the Ocean Science of the 21st century. Today, the continuous interaction among Operational Oceanography, Ocean Forecasting and Marine Technology necessitates the closer matching of scientific efforts with technological applications. Thus, the two-fold character of Operational *Corresponding author. Tel.: þþ30-1-9946163; Fax: þþ30-1-9946162; E-mail: tsouki@ncmr.gr ISSN 1023-6732 print: ISSN 1477-2779 online ß 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/1023673029000003499