Advanced Altimeter Data Assimilation for Physical Ocean Prediction and Ecosystem Monitoring J. Verron 1 , E. Blayo 2 , J. Blum 3 , J. M. Brankart 1 , P. Brasseur 1 , E. Chassignet 4 , E. Cosme 1 , G. Evensen 5 , L. Gourdeau 6 , F. X. Le Dimet 2 , P. J. van Leeuwen 7 and J. Schröter 8 [1]{LEGI, UMR5519, CNRS/INPG/UJF, France} [2]{LMC, UMR5523, CNRS/INPG/UJF/INRIA, France} [3]{LJAD, UMR6621, CNRS/UNSA, France} [4]{COAPS, USA} [5]{NERSC, Norway} [6]{IRD, New Caledonia} [7]{IMAU, The Nederlands} [8]{AWI, Germany} Correspondence to: J. Verron (Jacques.Verron@hmg.inpg.fr) Abstract This paper briefly describes the developments that have been recently carried out in our group on assimilation of altimetric data, alone or in conjunction with other data from space or in-situ. One leading motivation of these works is to contribute to the development of operational oceanography in the prospect of programmes such as MERSEA, HYCOM and GODAE and related scientific and observational components (Jason1/2, AltiKa, ARGO, TAO, PIRATA,...). 1