Argo (oceanography)

Argo (oceanography)

Argo is an observation system for the Earth's oceans that provides real-time data for use in climate, weather, oceanographic and fisheries research. Argo consists of a large collection of small, drifting oceanic robotic probes deployed worldwide. The probes float as deep as 2 km. Once every 9.5 days, the probes surface, measuring conductivity and temperature profiles to the surface. From these, salinity and density can be calculated. The data are transmitted to scientists on shore via satellite. The data collected are freely available to everyone, without restrictions. The initial project goal was to deploy around 3,200 probes, completed in November 2007. Before Argo, ocean temperatures were measured with buckets or with a bathythermograph and are now considered nearly worthless since almost all measurements were made from ships along the main commercial shipping lanes, leaving huge swaths of the oceans entirely unmonitored and the bathythermographs were much more imprecise - for example, they moved too quickly through the water to come to thermal equilibrium with the water they were trying to measure.