The Argo Project: Global Ocean Observations for Understanding and Prediction of Climate Variability

The U.S. component of the international Argo Project (http://www.argo.ucsd.edu) is implemented through this award. The present report covers Year 1 of the 5-year project, plus cumulative progress from previous awards (Phases 1 and 2) for pilot float arrays and data system development. By 2006, Argo will deploy a global array of 3000 profiling CTD floats (Argo Science Team, 1998, Roemmich and Owens, 2000, Roemmich et al, 2002), and establish a data system to meet the needs of both operational and scientific users. The Argo array will provide unprecedented real-time views of the evolving physical state of the ocean. It will reveal the physical processes that balance the large-scale heat and freshwater budgets of the ocean and will provide a crucial dataset for initialization and assimilation in seasonal-to-decadal forecast models. Argo is a major initiative in oceanography, with research and operational objectives, providing a global dataset for climate science and other applications. A National Oceanographic Partnership Program Award.