From the EU Horizon 2020 project AtlantOS to its development into the international All-Atlantic Ocean Observing System – AtlantOS the program

The First International AtlantOS Symposium ‘An All-Atlantic Ocean Observing System Ambitions and Opportunities feeding into the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)’ marked the end of the EU-Horizon 2020 AtlantOS project (see symposium report here).

 

Euro-Argo contribution to the AtlantOS H2020 project

The Euro-Argo ERIC was leading the task related to Argo evolution (task 3.1) in WP3: “Enhancement of autonomous observing networks”. As a contribution to the development of the existing Argo observing system toward deeper depths (Deep-Argo) that will complement and fill gaps between repeated hydrographic sections, 7 Deep Argo floats were purchased and deployed by the Euro-Argo ERIC. 6 BGC (biogeochemical) Argo floats measuring O2, nitrate concentration, Chlorophyll concentration, backscattering coefficient (optical proxy of Particulate Organic Carbon) and irradiance were also purchased and deployed in the Atlantic Ocean as a prefiguration of a sustained BGC-Argo network, especially in the South Atlantic, a biogeochemical hotspot where the target of 25% of the Argo fleet being of BGC-Argo type should be reached in the coming decade.

Three reports have been delivered by the Euro-Argo ERIC, as planned:

  • D3.14 describes the floats procurement, deployment and data availability.
  • D3.15 summarizes the activities on Real Time data processing of the AtlantOS profiling floats and explains the Delayed Mode data processing as forecasted for the years to come.
  • D3.16 describes how Euro-Argo aims at sustaining the European contribution to Argo and extending its capacities taking into account both the overall Argo International Strategy and also the European Strategy for an Atlantic Ocean Observing System – AtlantOS by 2030.

 

  

Euro-Argo’s contribution to the AtlantOS project participated in the enhancement of the Integrated Atlantic Observing System, while enabling to move one step forward in the implementation of the strategy for the evolution of Argo in Europe for the next decade.

 

Future

The AtlantOS EU-H2020 project - that has now ended - laid the foundations for a basin-scale contribution to the Global Ocean Observing System: the AtlantOS program. The vision for this All-Atlantic Ocean Observing System in 2030 has recently been published: