Huffman announces $2.7M to improve ocean observations
U. S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA- 02) announced Thursday that $2.7 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will be used to replenish and expand an important array of robotic floats in the Argo program that measure ocean and climate data.
An investment enabled by this funding is the purchase of new biogeochemical Argo floats that will be deployed in two key regions important to U. S. fisheries, the Gulf of Mexico and the California Current Ecosystem, which will enable monitoring of the environmental conditions in these areas to support sustainable fisheries management and ecosystem studies.
Huffman advocated for this funding to be allocated in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations legislation.
About the Project
The Argo array is made up of a fleet of robotic instruments that measure temperature and salinity in the global ocean, drifting freely with the currents.
Every 10 days, an Argo float dives 1.2 miles below the surface to collect data, which it then transmits via satellite after it returns to the surface for use in weather forecasts and climate research.
The Argo program includes 26 countries. The data from the Argo array plays a major role in ocean and climate assessments, such as assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. When OneArgo is fully implemented, it will benefit fisheries modeling and management, sea level rise predictions, advanced seasonal weather forecasting and the emerging industry associated with marine carbon dioxide removal.
Argo currently includes 4,000 floats and the ultimate goal is to add 700 more to the array.
The original Argo array, deployed in 1999, consisted of floats measuring temperature and salinity. In recent years, scientists and engineers developed new capabilities and new types of floats: Deep Argo floats, which extend the robots' range up to 3.7 miles below the surface, and biogeochemical Argo floats, which measure a range of conditions like oxygen, carbon and pH, which are critical for addressing environmental issues like low oxygen levels and ocean acidification.
About the funding
The new funding will add 40 more Argo floats, 7 more Deep Argo floats and 6 biogeochemical floats to the mix. Funding will also be applied to the development of key data management infrastructure for the array.