French contribution

Observation stations contributing to GLOSS

Stations françaises contribuant à GLOSS

The map on the right shows the French stations contributing to the GLOSS core network of stations, a contribution which was agreed by France when the programme was started at the beginning of the 1980s. Despite its heritage and the wealth of sea level data, the French contribution to the world programme appears relatively modest. There are numerous organisations which use the tide gauges in France as part of their missions. Nevertheless the French contribution is ambitious given the geographical extent of its territories (see map), which raises numerous technical and administrative difficulties.

Today, there is a favourable context for the participation of France in GLOSS. On one hand, SHOM became an “Etablissement Public” (Governmental Agency) in May 2007 and its mission was extended to providing support for the state’s maritime policy, which has opened up new perspectives for taking into account all water level measurement applications, both in terms of the observations and in making the data available, together with assuming the national coordination of tide gauge management based on what is already in place (SONEL, ROSAME etc.). This opening was further reinforced in 2010 by a Prime Minister instruction of 20 April 2010 (fr). On the other hand, SONEL has been acknowledged as a national research observation infrastructure (“Service d’observation”) on coastal sea level by the National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (INSU) in 2011.

GNSS at tide gauge data assembly centre for GLOSS

In addition to its national scope with its specific aims associated with a national research observation infrastructure on coastal sea level, SONEL plays the role of GNSS at tide gauge data assembly centre for the GLOSS programme since 2011. Hence it represents one of the five global data centres of the GLOSS programme (see GLOSS Implementation Plan - 2012, pp. 23). The GNSS observational complement to tide gauge data is key to understanding sea level change and variability.

National report of France to the GLOSS group of experts

 Report of France to the VIIIth GLOSS GE Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 13-17 October 2003.
 Report of France to the IXth GLOSS GE Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 24-25 February 2005.
 Report of France to the Xth GLOSS GE Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 5-8 June 2007.
 Report of France to the XIth GLOSS GE Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 13-15 May 2009.
 Report of France to the XIIth GLOSS GE Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 9-11 November 2011.
 Report of France to the XIIIth GLOSS GE Meeting, PSMSL, Liverpool, 30 October - 1st November 2013.
 Report of France to the XIVth GLOSS GE Meeting, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, 19 - 23 October 2015.
 Report of France to the XVth GLOSS GE Meeting, Columbia University, New York, 8-9 July 2017.
 Report of France to the XVIth GLOSS GE Meeting, KHOA, Busan, Republic of Korea, 11-13 April 2019.