Objectifs scientifiques et projet de recherche

The Coastal and Regional Ocean Community model (CROCO) is a modeling platform for the regional and coastal ocean using realistic or idealized multiscale approaches. CROCO was born from the fusion of different French codes (ROMS_AGRIF, MARS3d, SNBQ) supported by a consortium between IRD, Inria, Ifremer, CNRS and SHOM, assembled through a GdR (Groupement de Recherche). It is built around the kernel of ROMS (AGRIF version), supported for years by IRD and Inria, with the new addition of a nonhydrostatic solver, and with coupling capabilities for the atmosphere (WRF, MesoNH), surface waves (WW3), sediment dynamics (USGS, MUSTANG), ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystems (PISCES, BioEBUS). CROCO has now more than a thousand registered users, including half in southern countries and others spread between Europe and the USA. This community has consolidated over the years, attracted by the model’s computing performances and numerical accuracy and by easy access to thematic compartments for multidisciplinary applications. Southern partners, through IRD collaborations or independent use of the model, are already part of the CROCO community but require increasingly more scientific collaborations, model training and assistance, both with the standard code and its recent additions, and integration to the development strategy. This IRN, which is a follow up of the previous GdRI CROCO-Sud, will allow us to formalize and strengthen the links between the French CROCO community and southern partners by more formally integrating the latter in the community and by organizing workshops and training sessions, with an approach for structuring North-South and South-South collaborations. This has been done through the previous GdRI, through which we organized several summer schools (7 in Chile and South Africa) and participated in the funding of other summer schools, training sessions, and workshops. The summer schools are demonstrably appreciated by the partners, and we typically receive over 100 applications to each summer school. This has increased CROCO’s outreach and the breadth of sustainability issues the code helps tackle (marine biological production and resource exploitation, deoxygenation and acidification, coastal erosion and flooding, morphological evolution; local impacts of regional climate change and variability). In this renewal, we aim to consolidate the existing summer schools, aiming to make them self-sufficient, similar to the approach taken with basic courses in Chile. We also aim to develop new summer schools in Senegal, New-Caledonia, and Mexico, this will help to strengthen the community in Western Africa, Central America, and French Overseas. Structuring, training and support to new users, especially from southern countries, has always been an important ambition for ROMS, and now CROCO, but IRD support via this IRN will allow us to carry this ambition further and fully integrate Southern partners into the CROCO community (from both development and application points of view).

Unités IRD impliquées

• Département Océans, climat et ressources (OCEANS)
• ENTROPIE
• LEGOS
• LOCEAN
• LOPS
• MIO

Institutions membres

IRD : Institut de recherche pour le développement

CNRS : Centre national de la recherche scientifique - France

CEAZA : Centro de estudios avanzados en zonas aridas

CICESE : Centro de investigación científica y de educación superior de Ensenada

HCMUT : Hô-Chi-Minh-City University of Technology

IFREMER : Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer

INRIA : Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique

INPHB : Institut national polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny

IFOP : Instituto de Fomento Pesquero

IMARPE : Instituto del mar del Peru

IGP : Instituto geofisico del Peru

IMO : Instituto Milenio de Oceanografia

IPEIT : Institut préparatoire aux etudes d'ingénieurs de Tunis

Nelson Mandela University

Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine - SHOM - France

South African Environmental Observation Network - SAEON - Afrique du Sud

UCV : Universidad catolica de Valparaiso

UDEC : Universidad de Concepcion

UEM : Universidade Eduardo Mondlane

UNAL : Universidad nacional de Colombia

UAM : Université Amadou Mahtar MBOW

UASZ : Université Assane Seck de Ziguinchor

Université de Tunis - Tunisie

UCT : University of Cape Town