CNES and Ifremer sign framework agreement - Space advancing knowledge of the marine environment

Through this agreement, the two agencies have put their commitment to developing a long-term partnership in space oceanography and its applications on a formal footing.

Ifremer will contribute its scientific expertise to a number of CNES projects like the CATDS data centre supplying soil moisture and ocean salinity data products from the SMOS mission, the French-Chinese CFOSat oceanography satellite set to launch in 2018 to study surface winds, waves and ocean-atmosphere exchanges, and the joint NASA-CNES SWOT mission (Surface Water and Ocean Topography).

The agencies’ collaboration will extend to more specific projects such as the ODATIS national ocean data and services centre. Ifremer’s scientific expertise will also benefit preliminary studies for CNES’s future oceanography and high-resolution optical Earth-observing missions. Lastly, CNES and Ifremer will coordinate to fund doctoral and post-doctoral research in areas of shared interest.

After the signature of the agreement, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall stated that CNES is deeply committed to climate-monitoring and Earth-observation missions and is pursuing an ambitious partnership policy through cooperation agreements with research organizations, industry and the broad satellite user community. He expressed his satisfaction at the signing of this framework agreement with Ifremer focusing on new-generation oceanography projects.

Ifremer Chairman & Chief Executive Officer François Jacq underlined how far space research and technology is ahead of its ocean counterpart, and how satellite missions have significantly advanced knowledge and understanding of ocean processes over the last 30 years.

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    julien.watelet@cnes.fr

cp226-2016_-_accord_cadre_ifremer_va.pdf (pdf - 222.47 KB)