Argo- A global array of profiling floats for climate research and part

of the legacy of WOCE. by Dean Roemmich, International Argo Science Team (chairman) International and national planning continues to advance toward deployment of a global array of temperature/salinity profiling floats, known as Argo, beginning in 2000. Conceptually, the Argo array is a descendent of WOCE hydrographic, float and expendable bathythermograph (XBT) sampling networks. Profiling float technology was developed as part of WOCE, first to observe the reference velocity field at mid-depth (Davis, 1998), and later to include vertical profiling of temperature and salinity. Large-scale float deployments in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean were integral to the WOCE sampling strategy. The Argo network is a major part of WOCE's legacy in an integrated ocean observing system for climate. Argo is designed (Argo Science Team, 1998) to evolve from th