Other Argo firsts will be extensive underwater salinity profiles, and fast, free data distribution. If there is global warming going on, it has to be because the oceans are warming. Oceanographer Susan Wijffels holds an Argo float Ray Schmitt, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, for example, plans to use Argo salinity profiles to study ocean circulation, evaporation and precipitation rates, and climate change. Water can become saltier by evaporation, or rains can make it too fresh to sink, preventing deep convection. But other, lower frequency phenomena are less well understood.
Scientists also plan to study how climate patterns couple.
The idea for Argo came from the science community. Without it, we are in a bad position, we know very few things about the interior of the oceans. The name Argo, from Greek mythology, alludes to complementarity with Jason, an ocean altimetry satellite slated to be launched early next year. Argo will be of enormous value, says Howard Freeland, who studies the relationship between climate in the northeast Pacific and local wild salmon populations, and leads the Canadian Argo effort. We will be measured by the quality of product supplied, not research papers.