Q2011Thousands of autonomous Argo floats repeatedly descend and rise through the ocean, measuring temperature, salinity and pressure before surfacing to transmit open data by satellite.
A typical Core Argo float drifts deep for days, sinks towards about 2,000 metres, then profiles the water as it rises. At the surface it sends measurements and position to satellites before diving again, usually completing a cycle in roughly ten days. Distributed across the world's oceans, the fleet has turned vast, rarely visited water into a continuously renewed climate record available to everyone.
