Argo float status map as of December 13, 2024. Credit: Argo Information Center
In the summer of 2024, an Argo robotic float collected data on ocean temperature and salinity during a 10-day dive into the water column. This ocean data profile represents the three millionth collected by Argo’s global range of floats over the past 25 years. NOAA is a leader in the international Argo program and, through the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observation Program, funds half of the global program. Data collected by Argo floats is used in ocean research and to improve weather and climate forecasts.
Over the past 25 years, Argo floats have collected four times more information about the ocean than all other observation tools combined, revolutionizing ocean science as we know it! Today, the Argo program is evolving to help answer new scientific questions. Learn about Argo from the perspectives of four scientists from NOAA cooperative laboratories and institutes across the country, and what makes this ocean-observing instrument so special to them, in the interviews below.