Eric P. Chassignet is professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Director of the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies and Co-director of the Florida Climate Institute. He was awarded the 2008 National Oceanographic Partnership Program's Excellence in Partnering Award for his coordination of the US Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment: Global Ocean Prediction with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (US GODAE HYCOM). Dr Chassignet has published two previous books in collaboration with Dr Verron: Ocean Modeling and Parameterization (1998) and Ocean Weather Forecasting (2004). Claudia Cenedese is associate scientist with tenure in the Department of Physical Oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), faculty of the WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer Program, and co-director of the WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Jacques Verron is director of research at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and former director of the Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels in Grenoble, France. Dr Verron was awarded the silver medal from the CNRS in 1994 for his work on ocean data assimilation.