NOCES is a collaborative effort involving five different European countries:

France, UK, Belgium, Germany, and Norway.

The objectives of NOCES will be obtained by a partnership from scientists from nine centers of excellence in numerical modelling of air-sea CO2 exchange.

NOCES will use at least six ocean models, carefully evaluated with available data, to obtain three objectives:

1. to assess interannual-decadal variability of air-sea CO2 flux (ocean model-data comparison),
2. to evaluate prognostic coupled carbon-climate models (w.r.t. interannual variability), and
3. to improve constraints on the terrestrial carbon sink (ocean model sea-air CO2 fluxes as a priori estimates for inverse atmospheric models).

• the first ocean model Intercomparison to focus on interannual-decadal variability (1 regional and 5 global ocean models);
• the first effort to use multiple ocean carbon cycle models to simulate decadal variability (NCEP 1950-present) and to focus on associated mechanisms; and
• the first to include an inverse atmospheric modeling component.