2019•Frontiers in Marine ScienceOpen access
On the Future of Argo: A Global, Full-Depth, Multi-Disciplinary Array
Dean Roemmich, Matthew H. Alford, Hervé Claustre, Kenneth S. Johnson, Brian King, James N. Moum, Peter R. Oke, W. Brechner Owens, Sylvie Pouliquen, Sarah G. Purkey, Megan Scanderbeg, Toshio Suga, Susan Wijffels, Nathalie Zilberman, Dorothée C. E. Bakker, Molly Baringer, Mathieu Belbéoch, Henry C. Bittig, Emmanuel Boss, Paulo H. R. Calil, Fiona Carse, Thierry Carval, Fei Chai, D. Ó Conchubhair, Fabrizio D’Ortenzio, Giorgio Dall’Olmo, Damien Desbruyères, Katja Fennel, Ilker Fer, Raffaele Ferrari, Gaël Forget, Howard J. Freeland, Tetsuichi Fujiki, Marion Gehlen, B. J. W. Greenan, Robert Hallberg, Toshiyuki Hibiya, Shigeki Hosoda, Steven R. Jayne, Markus Jochum, Gregory C. Johnson, KiRyong Kang, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Arne Körtzinger, Pierre‐Yves Le Traon, Yueng‐Djern Lenn, Guillaume Maze, Kjell Arne Mork, Tamaryn Morris, Takeyoshi Nagai, Jonathan D. Nash, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Are Olsen, Rama Rao E Pattabhi, Satya Prakash, Stephen C. Riser, Catherine Schmechtig, Claudia Schmid, E. Shroyer, Andreas Sterl, Philip Sutton, Lynne D. Talley, Toste Tanhua, Virginie Thierry, Sandy Thomalla, John M. Toole, Ariel Troisi, Thomas W. Trull, Jon Turton, P. Vélez‐Belchí, Waldemar Walczowski, Haili Wang, Rik Wanninkhof, Amy F. Waterhouse, Stephanie Waterman, Andrew Watson, Cara Wilson, Annie P. S. Wong, Jianping Xu, Ichiro Yasuda
Abstract
The Argo Program has been implemented and sustained for almost two decades, as a global array of about 4000 profiling floats. Argo provides continuous observations of ocean temperature and salinity versus pressure, from the sea surface to 2000 dbar. The successful installation of the Argo array and its innovative data management system arose opportunistically from the combination of great scientific need and technological innovation. Through the data system, Argo provides fundamental physical observations with broad societally-valuable applications, built on the cost-efficient and robust technologies of autonomous profiling floats. Following recent advances in platform and sensor technologies, even greater opportunity exists now than 20 years ago to (i) improve Argo’s global coverage and value beyond the original design, (ii) extend Argo to span the full ocean depth, (iii) add biogeochemical sensors for improved understanding of oceanic cycles of carbon, nutrients, and ecosystems, and (iv) consider experimental sensors that might be included in the future, for example to document the spatial and temporal patterns of ocean mixing. For Core Argo and each of these enhancements, the past, present, and future progression along a path from experimental deployments to regional pilot arrays to global implementation is described. The objective is to create a fully global, top-to-bottom, dynamically complete, and multidisciplinary Argo Program that will integrate seamlessly with satellite and with other in situ elements of the Global Ocean Observing System (Legler et al., 2015). The integrated system will deliver operational reanalysis and forecasting capability, and assessment of the state and variability of the climate system with respect to physical, biogeochemical, and ecosystems parameters. It will enable basic research of unprecedented breadth and magnitude, and a wealth of ocean-education and outreach opportunities.