The Argo profiling float project will enable, for the first time, continuous global observations of the temperature, salinity, and velocity of the upper ocean in near‐real time.This new capability will improve our understanding of the ocean's role in climate, as well as spawn an enormous range of valuable ocean applications. Because over 90% of the observed increase in heat content of the air/land/sea climate system over the past 50 years occurred in the ocean [Leuitus et al., 2001], Argo will effectively monitor the pulse of the global heat balance.The end of 2003 was marked by two significant events for Argo. In mid‐November 2003, over 200 scientists from 22 countries met at Argo's first science workshop to discuss early results from the floats. Two weeks later, Argo had 1000 profiling floats—one‐third of the target total—delivering data. As of 7 May that total was 1171.
Many international policies encourage a switch from fossil fuels to bioenergy based on the premise that its use would not result in carbon accumulation in the atmosphere. Frequently cited bioenergy goals would at least double the present global human use of plant material, the production of which already requires the dedication of roughly 75% of vegetated lands and more than 70% of water withdrawals. However, burning biomass for energy provision increases the amount of carbon in the air just like burning coal, oil or gas if harvesting the biomass decreases the amount of carbon stored in plants and soils, or reduces carbon sequestration. Neglecting this fact results in an accounting error that could be corrected by considering that only the use of ‘additional biomass’ – biomass from additional plant growth or biomass that would decompose rapidly if not used for bioenergy – can reduce carbon emissions. Failure to correct this accounting flaw will likely have substantial adverse consequences. The article presents recommendations for correcting greenhouse gas accounts related to bioenergy.
A B S T R A C TThe autonomous profiling float has been a revolutionary development in oceanography, enabling global broad-scale ocean observations of temperature, salinity, velocity, and additional variables. The Argo float array applies this new technology to provide unprecedented measurements of the global upper ocean in near real time, with no period of exclusive use. It builds on its predecessors, the upper ocean thermal networks of the 1970s to 1990sextending the spatial domain and depth range, improving the accuracy, and adding salinity and velocity. Precision satellite measurements of sea surface height, as made by the Jason-1 altimeter, combine with Argo data in a dynamically complementary description of sea level variability and its subsurface causes. The broad-scale Argo float array is a central element in the international infrastructure for ocean research. A comprehensive ocean observing system can be constructed from floats, together with satellite measurements, improved measurements of air-sea fluxes, moored time-series in the tropics and other special locations, shipboard hydrography, and high resolution measurements in fronts, eddies and boundary currents from autonomous gliders. One of the primary objectives of the observing system is to close the oceanic budgets of momentum, heat, and freshwater on seasonal and longer time-scales in order to understand the role of the ocean in the climate system.
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