The ReefTEMPS observation network was officially launched in 2010 by GOPS to consolidate existing monitoring systems and expand observations across the South Pacific. But its history goes back much further: as early as 1958, in Nouméa, ORSTOM scientists began taking daily measurements of temperature and salinity in the lagoon, laying the groundwork for long-term environmental monitoring. A second station was established in 1967 on Amédée Islet, marking the beginnings of the future network.
Between 1992 and 2009, the program was gradually expanded to cover all of New Caledonia’s lagoons under the leadership of the IRD and the Zoneco program, notably thanks to the introduction of automatic sensors beginning in 1997. Starting in 2010, ReefTEMPS entered a new phase with a more robust organizational structure and an expanded international focus.
Between 2011 and 2015, the network expanded to include several Pacific island states and territories, with the deployment of sensors and the development of sustainable regional collaborations (Fiji, Micronesia, Kiribati, etc.). New partners have also joined the initiative, such as the University of New Caledonia and French Polynesia in 2021, which contributes its historical data.
Today, ReefTEMPS is a major international observation network, integrated since 2019 into the French research infrastructure ILICO as a National Observation Service (SNO). As such, it produces and disseminates high-quality oceanographic data (temperature, conductivity, pressure)—essential for monitoring climate change and tropical island coastal ecosystems—on an open-access basis. It has already recorded several hundred million measurements.
Le Gendre, R., Varillon, D., Fiat, S., Hocdé, R., de Ramon N’Yeurt, A., Andréfouët, S., Aucan, J., Cravatte, S., Duphil, M., Ganachaud, A., Gaudron, B., Kestenare, E., Liao, V., Pelletier, B., Peltier, A., Schaefer, A.-L., Trophime, T., Van Wynsberge, S., Dandonneau, Y., Allenbach, M., and Menkes, C.: ReefTEMPS: the Pacific Islands coastal temperature network, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 5277–5301, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-5277-2025, 2025