The Lab

In the Laboratory for Ocean Physics and remote Sensing (LOPS) we observe and investigate oceanic motions,  their connection with the atmosphere, sea floor and the littorals,  and their influence on life in the ocean.

The LOPS is a joint research unit affiliated to 4 French research and higher education institutions: CNRS (www.cnrs.fr), Ifremer ( www.ifremer.fr), IRD (www.ird.fr), and the University of Brest (UBO, www.univ-brest.fr). The LOPS was born in January 2016 from the merger of Laboratoire de Physique des Océans (LPO) Laboratoire d'Océanographie Spatiale(LOS), and part of the Dynamique Côtière lab of l'Ifremer. The LOPS is one of the seven labs that make up Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), and one of the three labs of the Océanographie et Dynamique des Ecosystèmes department at Ifremer. 

Research at LOPS is organized into 4 teams, working on

  • the coastal ocean
  • the oceans and climate
  • satellite remote sensing and air-sea interface dynamics
  • ocean scale interactions: how small scales (waves, eddies ...) influence the larger scales and vice versa. 

The lab expertise also contributes to higher education, in particular through the International Master in Marine Physics , and also with joint training programs with the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Sénégal).

Our work naturally fuels operational oceanography projects including Coriolis and the Copernicus Marine Core service. We have also been involved in the development of the French coastal  Previmer system, and there are strong collaborations with the private sector. The lab maintains and develops a unique know-how in oceanographic measurements at sea, and the interpretation of satellite remote sensing data. 

The 125 or so people that work at LOPS are tenured researchers (around 55), tenured engineers and technical staff (35) and around 35 graduate students, post-docs and technical staff on short-term contracts.

Organization chart