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The Argo Project: Global Ocean Observations for Understanding and Prediction of Climate Variability

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The Argo Project: Global Ocean Observations for Understanding and Prediction of Climate Variability SPECIAL ISS UE The Argo Project: Global ocean observations for understanding and prediction of climate variability Dean Roemmich Scripps Institution qfi Oceanography ° La Jolla, California USA W. Brechner Owens Woods Hole Oceanographic hzstitution ° Woods Holc, Massachusetts LISA Global ocean observations for climate Change, by the Twentieth Assembly of the Oceanography is now engaged in the ambitious Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and enterprise of designing and installing a global ocean the Thirteenth World Meteorological Congress. observing system to provide unprecedented observa- Within the U.S., the scientific and operational objec- tion of seasonal to decadal variability (OCEANOBS99, tives of Argo together with its global scope and inter- 1999). This will enable major advances in understand- disciplinary potential have resulted in its implementa- ing and prediction of climate along with other practical tion under NOPP. Argo stands at an important intersec- applications. The in situ backbone of the global system, tion of agency and disciplinary interests, making it a indeed the only element that will produce a global sub- strong candidate for NOPP sponsorship. surface dataset, is the Argo array of profiling floats (Argo Science Team, 1998, 1999a, 1999b). Why is Argo needed? Argo will consist of 3000 autonomous instruments The major climate initiatives of the past 20 years, and (Figure 1), each returning a profile of temperature and especially the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere salinity from 2000 m depth to the sea surface every 10 (TOGA) experiment and World Ocean Circulation days (Figures 2, 3). The floats will be distributed over the Experiment (WOCE), revealed critical roles played by the global ocean with a spacing of about 3'~ ocean in the coupled climate system. Not only is the in latitude and longitude. Data return ocean the dominant reservoir for water is via satellite, and profiles will be rap- Argo stands at an important and heat in air/sea/land variability, idly transmitted to forecast centers for in tersection of agency and but ocean dynamics and thermodv- namics participate through redistribu- operational use, typically in less than disciplhzaly interests, making it 12 hours. Scientifically quality con- tion of heat and sequestration of cli- a strong candidate for trolled data will be accessible via the matically active gases. The active role internet within three months. All Argo NOPP sponsorship. of equatorial ocean dynamics in the data will be openly available with no evolution of E1 Nifio was a break- proprietary restrictions. At any given time, the physical through finding durhG TOGA. TOGA's installation of an state of the global ocean will be observed and reported in situ observhlg system in the tropical Pacific made pos- by this array. sible the first successful E1 Nifio forecasts. The Argo project has drawn broad international inter- WOCE analyses showed that ocean currents carry est and support. It is a pilot project of the Global Ocean enormous quantities of excess heat from the tropics to Observing System (GOOS). It is strongly endorsed by mid-latitudes, about 2 x 1015 W in the northern hemi- the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) sphere alone (Bryden et al., 1991), comparable in mag- experiment of the World Climate Research Program nitude to heat transport by the atmosphere. WOCE data (WCRP) and the Global Ocean Data Assimilation have also revealed large interannual variability in the Experiment (GODAE). Argo was recognized as an ocean's heat engine. For example the tropical/extrat- important contribution by the Fourth Conference of the ropical heat transport in the North Pacific varies by at Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate least 30% interannually (Roemmich et al., 2000). Many Oceanogrophy • VoL 13 • No. 2/2000 45 60°N 40°N 20°N 0 o V~ 20°S 5 •' ', " ". 2 i: .' .:', ,.'.'.'.: ' • ...~." ,, ']b-' • i • i .... ' 'J": ' ':';" • :, .U':" ...'." :.' I_ 40os ~: ":.'....:".'.,'.".'.-, " ...,!!....:-.',..:T.'.:.~...: ...~ ': .: :...' :"..,.':' .:,:.., .. ":,,.': • :.." ...:::'. :,.'.[ 60os l:i!..i:::. !!.. ..:::.: i'.. !T• :::....:i:: :.: :::..i: " .: :.:, i:: :I: I [ I I I I I 50°E 150°E 1 IO°W 10°W LONGITUDE Figure 1. Schematic of the Argo array: a random array of 3000 locations spread over the globe in waters deeper than 2000 m. unanswered questions remain about the processes that available, the deployment of a global subsurface array initiate and sustain interannual and decadal variability. becomes a top priority for improved understanding of It is widely agreed that further progress in understand- the climate system and exploration of predictability. ing and predicting climate variability requires that the Argo is one element of a global ocean observing system present, largely tropical Pacific, observing system be (e.g. OCEANOBS99, 1999). Its deployment in the next expanded to encompass the global ocean. Global meas- few years will greatly add to the feasibility and value of urements of oceanic storage and transport are necessary the many needed regional enhancements. elements in a climate observing system. While the scientific rationale for global ocean meas- Argo and Jason urements has been built over decades, three recent There is an especially close relationship between the developments make deployment of the Argo array a profiling float array and satellite altimetry. The name compelling step now. Argo was chosen to stress this connection to the next • First, the development of the profiling float (Figure generation Jason satellite altimeters to be launched by 2) during the 1990s makes it feasible for the first NASA and CNES. Just as Jason in Greek mythology time to observe the physical state of the ocean (tem- required his ship, the Argo, for epic ocean voyages, so perature and salinity profiles, and a reference the altimeter Jason will need the modern Argo to com- velocity at depth) on a regular and routine basis plete its mission successfully. anywhere in the world. The combination of profiling floats and altimetry pro- • Second, the availability of precision satellite altime- vides a dynamically complete description of sea surface ters, measuring sea surface height globally every 10 height and its subsurface causes (Figure 4). Fluctuations days, creates a strong need for in situ datasets to in sea surface height may be written as: interpret and complement the surface topography (Figure 4). h" = __~ !e( p,)-I dp + --~-g1 p,(zr~r ) (1) • Finally, the ongoing maturation of data assimila- tion capabilities is a crucial development. Ocean state estimation (Stammer and Chassignet, 2000) where h is sea surface height, p is water density (a func- provides a framework for integrating subsurface tion of temperature, salinity and pressure), p is pressure, and remotely sensed surface datasets of wind forc- g is gravitational acceleration and primes denote anom- ing and oceanic response in a dynamically consis- alies from the time mean. The left-hand side of this equa- tent fashion. tion is measured by the altimeter. The first term on the With a satellite observing system now in place, and right (known as dynamic height) is calculated directly the powerful machinery for data assimilation soon to be from float profile data. This term measures the expansion 46 Oceanography • Vol. 13 • No. 2/2000 or contraction of the water column due to changes in also carried out global measurements but required 7 water properties (e.g. a heated water column expands). years and many ships to complete the global survey. In The second term on the right is obtained from the float's effect, Argo will be a real-time, upper-ocean WOCE, pro- velocity during the time that it drifts at the reference ducing a snapshot of the global ocean every 10 days. depth between profiles (e.g. Davis, 1998). The anticipated accomplishments of Argo fall into three broad categories. The first of these includes stand- alone achievements in improving our basic knowledge and understanding of the sea, including its structure, circulation, and mass, heat and salt budgets. Accurate global climatologies of subsurface temperature and salinity will have known errors and statistics of vari- ability. Time-series of heat and freshwater storage, as well as of the structure and volume of the world's ther- mocline and intermediate water masses will be avail- able on a global basis. Argo will complete the global description of the mean and variability of large-scale ocean circulation, including interior ocean mass, heat and freshwater transport. The dominant patterns of interannual to decadal variability in the sea--the ocean- ic expressions of ENSO, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, etc.--will be observed. A second group includes goals related to modeling and assimilation. Argo will provide an unprecedented dataset for data assimilation (Stammer and Chassignet, 2000)--to reveal the present physical state of the ocean Figure 2. A profilingfloat is held readyfor launch. and for initialization of predictive models. Operational real-time global ocean forecasts will become possible. The large-scale drift is in geostrophic balance: The dataset will also allow dynamical consistency testing of the next generation of global ocean and coupled mod- V ; =,fu els, without which further improvement of models is not where f is the Coriolis parameter and u is the drift possible. With the observation of the oceanic component velocity. The drift can therefore be used to calculate hor- of coupled modes
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