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Robotic Science Network Watches Our Oceans

Posted by michael on from the not-yet-self-aware dept.

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."

9 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Privacy Invasion! by bryan986 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can hear the screams now! Wait, no you cant.

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  2. Coming soon... by wcitechnologies · · Score: 4, Funny

    Awesome, looking forward to "Ghost In the Sea Shell"

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  3. Land based weather 'robots' by tonsofpcs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now if only we had as many Standards Based land based weather observatories/robots, this would make NOAA much more precise (it is already very acurate with its predictions, just a higher level of precision would be nice, rather than each 'site' covering a 50 mile radius (or more).

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    1. Re:Land based weather 'robots' by arivanov · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Same can be said for probes in more interesting places.

      If the graph is to believed there are nearly zero probes in the circular current in the Southern Hemisphere roaring sixties, there also very few probes in the other major current systems - Gulfstream, along N and S America West Coast, Azora, etc. At the same time there are plenty of probes which are sitting in relatively silent regions like 30-40 latt in the middle of the Pacific (north and south).

      I hope they put the remaining 1500 into the major current systems as these are the places that determine the weather around the globe. It will be more expensive to maintain as you have to salvage them quite often and relocate to the beginning of the current, but hopefully the data collected will pay back for the excessive maintenance costs.

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  4. argos animation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    if an early reader wouldnt mind mirroring the animation on the site , it does describe the project effectively , and shows how a network of 3000 buoys can cover the globe evenly. if at the expense of 26megs avi ...

  5. Re:Uuh... by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think it just might be you that did not wach "The day after tomorrow" with its weather and saline bouys.

    I wish I *didn't* watch it . .. does that count? ;)

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  6. Argo floats.. or does it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Argo floats, which are [...] programmed to sink"

    Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

  7. Argo project home page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    See also Argo.net.

  8. Some Better Links by OctaneZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another project I work on makes /.; go figure. Here are some better links.
    The US Global Data Center for the Argo project.

    The Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. Argo page. This includes links to data profiles and other info.

    WHOI's realtime data grapher allows you to see where the floats are, where they have been, find a float in any region WHOI monitors, etc.

    Also check out the Argo Information Center and their Global Float Map. (The WHOI one tends to be faster if you are only interested in the Atlantic)