PREVIMER is a pre-operational system aiming to provide a wide range of users, from private individuals to professionals, with short-term forecasts about the coastal environment along the French coastlines bordering the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
 "Vagues sur la plage de Port Maria, Quiberon 56, 1997")
Observation data and digital modelling tools first provide 4-day forecasts of sea states, currents, sea water levels, temperatures and primary production.
The follow-up of an increasing number of biological parameters will, in time, complete this overview of coastal environment.
Working in partnership with the French Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine, SHOM), the French National Weather Service (Météo France), the French public science and technology research institute ( Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, IRD), the European Institute of Marine Studies ( Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, IUEM) and Brest-Iroise Science and Technology Park (Technopôle Brest Iroise), IFREMER (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) is supplying the technologies needed to ensure this pertinent information, available daily on Internet, and stored at the Operational Coastal Oceanographic Data Centre.
Since 2006, PREVIMER publishes the results of models assigned to the French Seas or specific geographic areas. This system remains experimental.
The following topics will be covered:
- Hydrodynamic circulation (current and sea level),
- Sea water temperature,
- Sea states,
- Biogeochemical state and primary production.
Lastly, PREVIMER provides researchers and R&D departments with modelling tools and access to the database, in which the observation data and the modelling results are stored, to undertake environmental studies on new sites.
