Le projet CHROME « Continuous High Resolution Observation of the MEditerranean sea », a été financé par la fondation A*MIDEX, a permis d'étudier le contexte physico-chimique et biogéochimique des eaux de surface en intégrant des échelles spatio-temporelles de haute résolution (méso-échelle et hebdomadaire). Ces échelles d’observation de l’écosystème marin sont indispensables pour comprendre et intégrer au mieux le rôle des structures physiques à méso-échelle et des évènements météorologiques ponctuels tout en englobant la variabilité saisonnière classique. Pour cela, un système de mesures automatisées à haute résolution a été mis en place à bord d’un navire d’opportunité, le C/F Carthage de la Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation (CTN), à savoir: la FerryBox et le Cytomètre en Flux de type CytoSense. Ce navire traverse la Méditerranée quatre fois par semaine, de Tunis à Marseille et de Tunis à Gênes. CHROME s'est appuyé sur un consortium international composé par l'Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie (MIO), l’Institut National des Technologies et des Sciences de la Mer (INSTM), le Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG), la Station Biologique de Roscoff (SBR), le Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-Mer (LOV), l’Institut National de Géophysique et de Volcanologie (INGV) et l’Institut de Mathématique de Luminy (I2M). The CHROME project (Continuous High Resolution Observation of the MEditerranean sea) is financially supported by the A*MIDEX Foundation. Its objective was to study the physicochemical and biogeochemical context of the surface waters, integrating high-resolution space and time scales (mesoscale and weekly). Observing the marine environment at this scale is important to understand and integrate as well as possible the roles of mesoscale physical structures and single meteorological events (pulse events) while at the same time encompassing conventional seasonal variability. With this in mind, a high-resolution automated measuring system was set up using the Tunisian ship of opportunity C/F Carthage of the Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation (CTN) equipped with modern and validated technological appliances, i.e. a FerryBox and a CytoSense flow cytometer. This ship crosses the Mediterranean sea four times a week between Tunis and Marseille and between Tunis and Genoa. CHROME was supported by an international consortium associating the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), the National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies (INSTM), the Oceanology and Geoscience Laboratory (LOG), the Roscoff Biological Station (SBR), the Luminy Institute of Mathematics (I2M), the Oceanology Laboratory of Villefranche-sur-Mer (LOV) and the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV).

The MAP-IO (Marion Dusfresne Atmospheric Program - Indian Ocean) program aims to make up for the lack of observation in this region of the earth by equipping the Marion Dufresne vessel (https://taaf.fr/en/marion-dufresne-and-astrolabe/) with a set of in-situ instruments and remote sensing for the atmosphere and marine biology studies. This program has been labeled by the French Commission Nationale de la Flotte Hauturière (CNFH, https://www.flotteoceanographique.fr/) for the period 2021 to 2024. During this period, MAP-IO will operate as a scientific program for the acquisition and scientific enhancement of four years of data. This period will also serve as an operational prototype to study the feasibility of switching the program to a permanent observatory aimed at integration into international infrastructures networks such as ACTRIS (https://www.actris.eu/) or ICOS (https://www.icos-cp.eu/). - more informations on the project : http://www.mapio.re/ The Cytosense automated flow cytometer from the cytobuoy compagny was installed onboard the Marion Dufresnes Sea Water supply, to run semi continuously samples for phytoplankton functional groups resolution. Sample acquisition was schedulled once avery two hours. The data corresponds to abundances in cells/ml, mean forward scatter and red fluorescence in arbitrary units, per group. The groups are identified as standard groups following the BODC F02 vocabulary and the corresponding selections sets named following expert names.