ARGO, cl imate research t hrough t he ocean The ocean , along with the atmosphere, spreads the heat that reaches the equatorial and tropical zones all over the planet. Studying it is fundamental to understanding the climate and predicting its behaviour. To this end , the Argo international programme was conceived . Argo has deployed 4 000 buoys across the world ocean . They measure pressure, temperature, salinity and other factors. In less than 24 hours all the information is available, free of charge, to the entire public. How does the data collection work? The buoys, also called profiling f loats, are connected to a satellite on the surface when they are released . After this, they sink to a depth of 1 000 metres, where they remain drifting for 9 days. Then they dive to up to 2 000 metres (or more) and immediately begin to ascend toward the surface. As they ascend , they record a vertical profile of the ocean , taking precise measurements of temperature and salinity ever y 1.5 metres. So far, more than 2 million profiles have been made. Upon returning to the surface, the Argo buoys send the data from their 10-day trip to the nearest available satellite. Then they dive back beneath the surface for a new cycle. Argo and Investigación y Ciencia (Adapted) Argo and ocean warming The ocean is an ideal place to identify long-term warming trends in our climate system. The figure shows the average temperature anomalies in the global ocean measured by Argo. The temperatures of the top 600 metres f luctuate with short-term weather events, such as El Niño. The deeper waters, however, show a constant warming trend , which is indicative of a general warming of the Earth’s climate. ARGO ha s been ope rat i ng s i nc e 2000 8
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