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Wednesday, January 31, 2018. 12:00PM. Webinar: Planning for a Biogeochemical-Argo profiling float array: Results from the SOCCOM array and future goals. Ken Johnson, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Sponsored by Center for Satellite Applications and Research. More information here.

Biogeochemical-Argo is the extension of the Argo array of profiling floats to include floats that are equipped with biogeochemical sensors for pH, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll, suspended particles, and downwelling irradiance.  This array of biogeochemical floats will enable an observing system that can determine the seasonal to decadal-scale variability in biological productivity, the supply of essential plant nutrients from deep-waters to the sunlit surface layer, ocean acidification, hypoxia, and ocean uptake of carbon dioxide.  Planning for a global array has focused on the deployment of regional systems that operate at the scale of an ocean basin to validate the concept.  The major effort in the US has been the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) array.  The SOCCOM program, with NSF, NOAA, and NASA support, has targeted 200 profiling floats with oxygen, nitrate, pH and bio-optical sensors in the poorly observed regions from 30°S down to areas with seasonal ice coverage as far as 75°S.  Computer and statistical models indicate that a global array of 1000 biogeochemical floats will provide a transformative impact on our knowledge of oceanic biogeochemical cycles, including carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.  With nearly 100 floats now operating in the SOCCOM array, we have achieved 1/10 of the global target.  Much of the talk will focus on the results and lessons learned from the SOCCOM array.  The remainder of the talk will emphasize the resources and effort needed to extend regional arrays, such as SOCCOM, to a global extent.