Fifteen years of ocean observations with the global Argo array

Abstract

More than 90% of the heat energy accumulation in the climate system between 1971 and the present has been in the ocean. Thus, the ocean plays a crucial role in determining the climate of the planet. Observing the oceans is problematic even under the most favourable of conditions. Historically, shipboard ocean sampling has left vast expanses, particularly in the Southern Ocean, unobserved for long periods of time. Within the past 15 years, with the advent of the global Argo array of pro ling oats, it has become possible to sample the upper 2,000 m of the ocean globally and uniformly in space and time. The primary goal of Argo is to create a systematic global network of pro ling oats that can be integrated with other elements of the Global Ocean Observing System. The network provides freely available temperature and salinity data from the upper 2,000 m of the ocean with global coverage. The data are available within 24 hours of collection for use in a broad range of applications that focus on examining climate-relevant variability on seasonal to decadal timescales, multidecadal climate change, improved initialization of coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models and constraining ocean analysis and forecasting systems.

The GEOVIDE cruise in May–June 2014 reveals an intense Meridional Overturning Circulation over a cold and fresh subpolar North Atlantic

“…The ocean has taken up 90 % of the heat accumulated in the climate system since 1971 (Riser et al, 2016). In this context, it is striking to note the absence of a significant warming trend in between 50 and 60 • N in the Atlantic Ocean between 1955 and 2010 (Levitus et al, 2012;Sgubin et al, 2017).…”

The Black Sea Deep Current Velocities Estimated from the Data of Argo Profiling Floats

“…The system of autonomous deep-drifting profiling floats Argo began to develop within the framework of international project on the World Ocean monitoring in 1999 [17,18]. In the ocean the float drifts at the specified depth.…”

“…1). 27 floats were deployed into the Black Sea [17] from 2005 to 2015. For the present day 9 profiling floats are in operation.…”

Forecasting Global Warming

“…Ostensibly, all of the studies make use of similar (if not the same) measurements from expendable bathy-thermograph (XBT) devices and the more accurate conductivity temperature depth (CTD) probes. Use of CTDs began in the 1980s, and expanded considerably in 2001 based on the deployment of thousands of drifting floats under the Argo program (Riser et al 2016). Alas, the ocean is vast and much is not sampled.…”