Frontiers in Marine Science (Mar 2020)
Biogeochemical Argo: The Test Case of the NAOS Mediterranean Array
Abstract
The necessity of wide, global-scale observing systems for marine biogeochemistry emerged dramatically in the last decade. A global network based on Biogeochemical (BGC) Argo floats is considered to be one of the most promising approaches for reaching this goal. As a first step, pilot studies were encouraged to test the feasibility of a global BGC-Argo array, to consolidate the methods and practices under development, and to set up the array’s characteristics. A pilot study in The Mediterranean Sea—deemed a suitable candidate for a test case because it combines a relatively large diversity of oceanic BGC conditions in a reduced open-ocean basin—was consequently approved as a part of the “Novel Argo ocean Observing System” (NAOS) project, a French national initiative to promote, consolidate, and develop the Argo network. We present here a first assessment of the NAOS Mediterranean array, in view of scientific choices on observing-system strategy, on implementation and statistics on network performances, and on data-quality control.
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