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Talk on "The Argo Program
and Ocean Circulation Studies in the Antarctic" |
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Prof Stephen Riser, delivered an informative talk on "The Argo Program and Ocean Circulation Studies in the Antarctic" at NCAOR on 12th April, 2010.The talk evoked lot of interest among the scientists of OSSG, EEZ and Southern Ocean groups as was seen by the extended discussion session. Prof Riser said "Over the
past decade the Argo program has established an array of profiling floats
in the world ocean, with the array now consisting of over 3000 drifting
instruments. The floats generally collect temperature, salinity, and
pressure data in the upper 2000 m of the ocean, with profiles collected at
10 day intervals. The use of the global dataset resulting from the array
shows clear evidence of warming in the upper ocean in most places, with
associated changes in salinity especially prominent at high southern
latitudes. In recent years nearly 100 specially-designed prototype floats
have been deployed in the Antarctic seasonal ice zone; these instruments
continue to collect and store data during the winter and transmit all of
the winter observations by satellite in the spring when the ice melts. In
spite of the difficult environment, the loss rate of these ice-capable
floats is similar to the loss rate at other latitudes. Some preliminary
observations from these floats will be shown, including the evolution of
the seasonal cycle of freezing and melting, with associated increases and
decreases in ocean salinity. The Argo Steering Team has recommended that
the program expand into high latitudes in the coming years, and thus it is
hoped that work of this kind will become much more common in the future."
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