Robotic Science Network Watches Our Oceans

Roland Piquepaille writes "I bet most of you have never heard about Argo, an ambitious scientific project about the observation of our oceans. This project is endorsed by 18 countries and just reached a milestone: there are today more than 1,500 robotic floats reporting about salinity changes or predicting El Niño events, among other ones. This news release from the University of California at San Diego says that the Argo floats, which are autonomous ocean-traveling robots programmed to sink more than a mile below the ocean surface, are helping scientists all over the world to look at the future of our whole planet. And in 2007, when the deployment is completed, 3,000 underwater robots will help us to better understand the changes in our climate. You'll find more details, pictures and references in this overview."

Comments

Too Few?

[Umbral Blot]

This seems like an awfully small number since 2/3 of the earth's surface is covered in water. I mean these robots will give us a start, but for more reliable data this number seems to need to be drastically increased. I wonder what their plans are for expansion. Or do they have some technique that can help extrapolate between the gaps. The ocean seems too complex and too unknown to cover with so few robots.

Re:Too Few?

[saider]

My guess is that while it may be less than ideal coverage, it is...
1) Better than what they had before
2) Cost effective.

More probes may provide better results, but I think right now they are looking for the big picture. If they find something interesting from the data, they can then populate interesting areas with more probes.

I wonder what the environmentalists think about more of the probe wreckages being spread all over the oceans.