OceTHE OFFICIALa MAGAZINEn ogOF THE OCEANOGRAPHYra SOCIETYphy CITATION Jayne, S.R., D. Roemmich, N. Zilberman, S.C. Riser, K.S. Johnson, G.C. Johnson, and S.R. Piotrowicz. 2017. The Argo Program: Present and future. Oceanography 30(2):18–28, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.213. DOI https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.213 COPYRIGHT This article has been published in Oceanography, Volume 30, Number 2, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2017 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. DOWNLOADED FROM HTTP://TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHY SPECIAL ISSUE ON AUTONOMOUS AND LAGRANGIAN PLATFORMS AND SENSORS (ALPS) The Argo Program Present and Future By Steven R. Jayne, Dean Roemmich, Nathalie Zilberman, Stephen C. Riser, Kenneth S. Johnson, Gregory C. Johnson, and Stephen R. Piotrowicz NEMO float deployed in the Arctic from R/V Polarstern. Photo from http:// www.argo.ucsd.edu/pictures.html 18 Oceanography | Vol.30, No.2 The Argo Program is the example of how autonomous and Lagrangian platforms and sensors (ALPS) technology can be the basis of a “ global ocean observing system. ” ABSTRACT. The Argo Program has revolutionized large-scale physical oceanography global ice-free ocean in the band from through its contributions to basic research, national and international climate 60°N to 60°S (excluding marginal seas). assessment, education, and ocean state estimation and forecasting. This article Deployments were begun in 1999, with discusses the present status of Argo and enhancements that are underway. Extensions the goal of a 3,000-float array achieved of the array into seasonally ice-covered regions and marginal seas as well as increased in November 2007. Argo observed its numbers of floats along the equator and around western boundary current extensions one-millionth profile on October 30, have been proposed. In addition, conventional Argo floats, with their 2,000 m sampling 2012. Today, it is taken for granted that limit, currently observe only the upper half of the open ocean volume. Recent advances systematic observations of the global in profiling float technology and in the accuracy and stability of float-mounted upper-ocean (0–2,000 m) are obtained by conductivity-temperature-depth sensors make it practical to obtain measurements to around 3,800 Argo floats (Figure 1), and 6,000 m. The Deep Argo array will help observe and constrain the global budgets of made available in near-real time. The cost heat content, freshwater, and steric sea level, as well as the full-depth ocean circulation. per Argo profile is less that $200, com- Finally, another extension to the Argo Program is the addition of a diverse set of pared to over $10,000 for a shipboard chemical sensors to profiling floats in order to build a Biogeochemical-Argo array to hydrographic profile. The Argo Program understand the carbon cycle, the biological pump, and ocean acidification. has collected roughly 1.8 million hydro- graphic profiles that are archived in the BACKGROUND forecasting systems. Use of Argo data has Global Data Assembly Center (GDAC) Science writer Justin Gillis of the New York been remarkably successful in observ- repository and are freely available to the Times recently described Argo as “one of ing climate variability and change in the public. Prior to Argo, there were about the scientific triumphs of the age” (Gillis, ocean, and the program is now evolving 535,000 hydrographic profiles to depths 2014). Since its inception, the primary to become part of a more comprehensive greater than 1,000 m in the World Ocean goal of the Argo Program has been to observing system. Database 2009 (Boyer et al., 2009), with create a systematic global network of The original plan set by the Argo large seasonal and geographical sampling profiling floats that can be integrated Steering Team in 1998 was to “provide biases (Riser et al., 2016). Enhanced sam- with other elements of the Global Ocean an enhanced real-time capability for pling by Argo of the upper ocean has sig- Observing System. The float network measurement of temperature and salin- nificantly improved the ability to estimate provides freely available upper-ocean ity through the upper 2,000 m of the the ocean’s heat content (Palmer, 2017) data within 24 hours of data transmis- ocean and contribute to a global descrip- and the monitoring of Earth’s energy sion. The observations are used in a broad tion of the seasonal cycle and inter- imbalance (von Schuckmann et al., 2016). range of applications that focus on exam- annual variability of the upper ocean Riser et al. (2016) recently reviewed ining climate-relevant variability on sea- thermohaline circulation” (Argo Steering the scientific achievements of the first sonal to decadal time scales, multidecadal Team, 1998). The original goal of the 15 years of the Argo Program. Highlights climate change, improved initialization of Core Argo Program was, and remains, a of that review include that since the coupled ocean/ atmosphere climate mod- nominal coverage of one float per each beginning of Argo, the data have els, and constraining ocean analysis and 3° longitude by 3° latitude box in the found widespread use throughout the Oceanography | June 2017 19 Argo National Contributions — 3,790 Operational Floats — July 2017 ! .! (! ! ! !! ! (! (! !! ! ! .!( ! (!! (!.! ! ! ! !!(!! ! ! ! ! (!! ! ! ! (!!(! ! ! !!! !(! !! !(! ! ! (! !!! ! !! !!!! !!(!(!(!(!.! (! .! !! !! ! !! ! ! (!!(!(!! (! ! (! (! ! ! !!!(!(! ! !(! !.! .! (! (!!(! !(! ! !!! !! !!! ! (!!! (!(! ! !! (! ! ! ! (! !(! (! ( (! (! ! !!! ! !(! ! !! (! (! (! (!(!! (! ! !! ! !! (! ! (! !! (! ! ! .! ! (! (! (!(! (! (! ( ! ! !! !(! ! ! ! .! ! (! (! ! ! (! (!(!(! ! !!!(! !!!(!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! .!.! (!(!!! ! (! (! (!(! (! (! !! !! !!!!!!! !!!!! !(!!!(!!! (!! .! ! (!( (!(! ! ! ! (! ! !( ! !(! !! ! !(! ! ! ! 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