Argo is an international program that collects information from inside the ocean using a fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents and move up and down between the surface and a mid-water level. Each instrument (float) spends almost all its life below the surface.
The name Argo was chosen because the array of floats works in partnership with the Jason earth observing satellites that measure the shape of the ocean surface. (In Greek mythology, Jason sailed on his ship Argo in search of the golden fleece)…
Data Access: Learn how to access Argo data whether you’re a scientist looking to use it in your resesarch, a student learning about the ocean or a curious member of the public.
Data Visualizations: Want to see Argo data without having to actually plot it yourself? Check out these different websites and viewers that show Argo data with a few clicks of a button.
Science highlights: One of Argo’s key objectives is to observe ocean data related to climate change. Find out how it’s doing on assessing ocean temperatures, the water cycle, and sea level rise.
Movies & Pictures: Watch Argo floats being prepared for deployment in a lab and scientists launching floats. Take a peak inside floats and compare the different models.
Float Technology: The sensors on Argo floats and the floats themselves are what make the Argo Program possible. Learn about the latest developments with sensors and floats.
Frequently Asked Questions: Find answers to questions like how Argo got its name, what powers floats and how long they live.
Why do we need Argo?
We are increasingly concerned about global climate change and its regional impacts. Sea level is rising at an accelerating rate of 3 mm/year, Arctic sea ice cover is shrinking and high latitude areas are warming rapidly. Extreme weather events cause loss of life and enormous burdens on the insurance industry. Globally, 9 of the 10 warmest years since 1880, when instrumental records began, were in the 21st century.
These effects are caused by a mixture of long-term climate change and natural variability. Their impacts are in some cases beneficial (lengthened growing seasons, opening of Arctic shipping routes) and in others adverse (increased coastal flooding, severe droughts, more extreme and frequent heat waves and weather events such as severe tropical cyclones).
Understanding (and eventually predicting) changes in both the atmosphere and ocean are needed to guide international actions, to optimize governments’ policies and to shape industrial strategies. To make those predictions we need improved models of climate and of the entire earth system (including socio-economic factors) → Read more…
Quelle: Argo – Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
