NOAA Argo Floats
Published Date: 04/23/2023 Author: Nayana Venukanthan
What is the Argo program?
To meet the emerging need for global-scale oceanographic data monitoring and collection, NOAA launched a new technological initiative in 1998 called the Argo Program. The Argo program is an international project with participation from over 30 countries that aims to: 1) quantify the ever-changing state of the upper 2000 meters of the ocean with accurate temperature and salinity data and 2) integrate Argo data to enhance existing weather and climate forecast models. They achieve these objectives using a global array of autonomous floats. Over the past two decades, the Argo program has created more than 2 million vertical temperature and salinity profiles.
The project is partnered with some of the world’s most renowned oceanographic institutions, including NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, the University of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, and NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. It has gained widespread attention, and went on to win the Institute for Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Corporate Innovation Award in 2022. IEEE is the largest technical professional organization dedicated to tech innovation in the world.
How do the floats work?
Ships launch each Argo float, which are designed such that their weight causes them to stabilize about 1 km below sea level. After ten days, a pump mechanism causes the float to descend to 2 km below sea level, and then rise up, collecting data as it resurfaces. This ten-day cycle repeats until the float’s life cycle is over (which is typically around 10 years).
The floats are very costly, costing between $20,000 and $150,000 each. The floats in the Argo program are manufactured by commercial companies and contributed by individual research institutions but must pass international standards to be approved for the program. The float designs change and evolve to become more environmentally friendly, economically sound, and more efficient in collecting new types of data at further depths.
Why does the Argo program matter?
The Argo program is revolutionary in the realm of oceanographic data-based research for multiple reasons.
Firstly, the open and free access to Argo data has led to thousands of research publications, at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. 350 PhD theses have made use of Argo data. Beyond the realm of academia, this data also provides the general public the ability to see the ocean, which increases public engagement with ocean science, which is crucial for the public to gain appreciation and recognition for the importance of ocean science in our current environmental and climate crisis.
Moreover, the data collected by the Argo has been immensely helpful in current research endeavors related to climate research. The temperature profiles generated have also made global estimates for heat storage much more accurate, which has been essential in research related to sea level rise (as a result of climate change and other factors). Salinity data has been used for global rainfall predictions and precipitation models as well.
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Content:
What is Argo? | ARGO
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