Profiling float data have an enormous range of applications. The more distinctive categories for
Argo data use are : Educational, Operational, and Research. With over 3200 floats reporting free, easy to access data every
10 days, Argo provides a relevant, global ocean data set. The temperature, salinity and velocity data from Argo can teach everything from
basic concepts, like the temperature of the ocean and how to read graphs, to more complicated ones like analyzing ocean data over time and
climate change issues.
A classic approach is developing educational material for classroom use. The target audience for this category is large,
encompassing students of all ages (kindergarten through university level). The goal is to have material for all levels. Some materials
need computers and internet access, while others do not. Thus, all teachers, no matter their resources, can use Argo data in their classroom.
Another approach taken is outreach workshops. These workshops target the scientific community. Scientists who want to learn more about how
to obtain, map, and analyze Argo data are invited to participate. Workshops are organized by groups associated with Argo to address the
differing needs generated by the multitude of users around the world. User-friendly online resources, such as in Google Earth and Wikipedia,
are developed which allow the public, in general, to educate themselves about Argo.
The operational uses are based on the existence of many centers around the world that
use Argo data to produce global and regional analyses of subsurface properties because Argo is the most abundant source of subsurface information,
(temperature, salinity, velocity) for the global ocean. The availability of these data in real time lends them to use by operational centers
involved in the analysis and forecasting of the state of the ocean for weather and climate.
The Argo data is used by the international scientific community. With over 3200 floats reporting
and more than 10,000 profiles per month being delivered from the Argo array, never before have oceanographers and climate scientists had such a
comprehensive subsurface ocean data available for research. Data is assimilated into weather forecast models to improve prediction. More
that 200 research papers per year are now being published using Argo data covering a broad range of topics including water mass properties and
formation, air-sea interaction, ocean circulation, mesoscale eddies, ocean dynamics and seasonal-to-decadal variability. For further information
you can consult Bibliography here.
Argo is an international program that calls for the deployment of 3,000 free drifting profiling floats,
distributed over the global oceans, which will measure the temperature and salinity in the upper 2,000m of the ocean providing 100,000 T/S profiles
and reference velocity measurements per year. This broad-scale
global array of temperature/salinity profiling floats has already grown to be a major
component of the ocean observing system. The program has changed the way scientists think about collecting data and provided additional spin off such
as how to collaborate internationally and how to develop a data management that can be used for the scientific community. Data is crucial for weather
forecast and provides information for climate and the biological ocean.
