An Argo week in Ifremer Centre Bretagne

About one hundred scientists met at Centre Ifremer Bretagne from 16th to 20th March 2015 for an "Argo week".

Argo is an International program started around 2000, that aims at monitoring and understanding the impact of the ocean on the climate, thanks to the maintenance of a permanent network of nearly 4000 profiling floats, sampling temperature and salinity but also some biogeochemical parameters such as oxygen or chlorophyll from the surface to 2000m at global scale.

The week started on March 16^th with the 5^th Euro-Argo User Workshop. Euro-Argo coordinates the European contribution to the Argo network. The ERIC Euro-Argo, a new European Research Infrastructure for the observation of the ocean inaugurated its new offices at Ifremer.

On the March 18^th, JCOMMOPS offices were also inaugurated at Ifremer Centre Bretagne with representatives of UNESCO, WMO, JCOMM, Conseil Général du Finistère, Brest Métropole and Technopôle Brest Iroise. Under the auspices of UNESCO and World Meteorological organization, JCOMMOPS monitors in real time performances of the main global ocean networks. Previously located at CLS in Toulouse, the team composed of 4 persons is now installed at Ifremer Centre Bretagne.

Finally, the week ended with the 16^th Argo steering team meeting that meets once a year and coordinates the Argo activities and defines the objectives for the future.