Page 66 - Livre_MOW2022_EN

64 | SOLUTIONS FOR THE OCEAN / INNOVATIONS

HEADING TO THE DEPTHS
WITH DEEP ARGO

Surpassing the initial technological limitations, this
latest generation of floaters is now capable of acqui-
ring data from the deep ocean, 6 kilometres below
the surface: thus monitoring abyssal warming, esti-
mated at 10% of global climate system warming, and
deep ocean circulation.

The report on the Deep Argo mission’s pilot areas
attracted the attention of specialists during this mee-
ting: in the Southwest Pacific Basin, deep floaters de-
tected new acceleration in the warming trend of deep
waters from the Antarctic.

OPEN DATA
The system provides 90% of Argo profiles to users
via 2 global data centres within 12 hours of their issue
(10% of profiles are unusable). Pioneers in the open
science movement, these data, shared for the last 20
years, are made available to the entire international
scientific community as well as the public, including
the education sector. They fuel various applications,
such as the modelling of ocean circulation and the
prediction of tropical cyclones.

IN The Prince Albert II of Monaco
FIGURES Foundation provided funding

in 2017 for the implementation
of 6 BGC Argo trackers to
One Argo take chemical and biological
■ ~ 4,000 Argo floaters in operation measures in the ocean.
in the ocean, i.e. 1 floater every
300 km ,
2
■ > 5,000 scientific articles using AN ARGO FLOATER
Argo data, ■ 50 kg,
■ 45 countries involved, ■ ■ lifetime: 5 years (target: 7 years),
activity cycle: 9 days/10 spent at a depth of 1,000 m.
■ 500 to 600 floaters / year have to On the 10 day, it descends to 2,000 m before
th
be deployed to keep the network
active, returning to the surface to transfer the data acquired
via satellite, before redescending to 1,000 m and
■ goal: 4,200 floaters deployed for drifting with the currents.
all 3 missions.