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| Since 2000, the Argo Program has grown rapidly and become a functioning global observing system for the subsurface ocean. More than 3000 Argo floats now cover the world’s ocean. With these instruments operating on 10-day cycles from surface to 2000m, the array provides 9000 temperature/salinity/depth profiles every month that are quickly available via the Global Telecommunications System and the Internet. Maintain such a network requires international collaboration as about 800 new floats need to be deployed to fill the gaps created by the death of old floats and the fact that Argo floats are moving according to ocean currents. France contributes to the Argo effort through Coriolis that coordinates the contribution of the French institutes involved in Argo (CNES, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD, IPEV, Météo-France and SHOM). About 80 floats are deployed each year mainly in Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Most of the deployments are performed from research vessels in collaboration with scientific teams involved in Argo. But in some areas , you need to rely on other platforms such as opportunity vessels that have the capabilities to deploy a few floats during their transit. In 2012, Coriolis deployed more than 120 floats as France had some backlog to resume after the Seabird pressure sensor failure that led to stopping most of the deployments in 2010. Therefore we have used either sailing vessels or military vessels or educational vessels. Deploying from opportunity vessels requires
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 © Liladhoc |
>> Some example of deployments :
The French Non-Governmental Organization “Voiles sans Frontières”
| The French Non-Governmental Organization “Voiles sans Frontières” (VSF, Sailors without borders) operates in isolated areas of the Atlantic with the open sea or rivers being the only way to access. With the support of ocean‐going sailing vessels, VSF accomplishes in priority sanitary or medical missions and educational programs. In 2012, JCOMMOPS established a partnership with VSF for the deployment of floats and funded the test campaign and Coriolis collaborated with VSF to perform the first deployment. Five VSF yachts (LILADHOC, SODRIC, CHANIC, DREAMWEAVER et YOBALEMA) took on-board one or two floats, which later were released at an indicated position according to the procedure they were trained to. A special thanks to Michel Huchet ( NGO president) and Laurent Gouy took care of the logistic of this adventure (float transport, documentation and training) and to the yacht crews (LILADHOC, SODRIC, CHANIC, DREAMWEAVER et YOBALEMA) that performed the deployments. We plan to renew this experience in coming years. We hope that the success of this first participation to the ARGO program, suggests a greater number of VSF Argonauts starting in 2013. |
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Le Dreamweaver |
Nathanaële Lebreton, responsible of the Deployment team for Coriolis, met the NGO members and presented the Argo project during a seminar attended by interested persons from medical and paramedical sector. She got a lot of questions about the oceans, the profilers,…
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The Military vessel Commandant L’Herminier
It has deployed 10 floats during summer 2012 by Gilbraltar strait and to the gulf of Guinea.
This cruise was also followed by an elementary class and it was the occasion to teach children on how an ARVOR float operates, what it measures and for which purpose. The children visited the vessel before its departure and followed the activities during the campaign.
An article was publish in the newspaper "Cols Bleus" n°2999 in September 2012 (page 22
Marine_Nationale_sept_2012 1.91 MB).
© Aviso-CDT-LHerminier
From Saling boats before and even during a race
- The racing yachts MOD 70 and KRYS OCEAN RACE
Steve Ravussin (Multi-one attitude, Race for Water) and Michel Desjoyaux (Foncia) skippers accepted to deploy floats on their way to the KRYS OCEAN RACE departure (New York -Brest) where there were gaps in the Argo network. The arrival was during the “Tonnerres de BREST” festival in July and outreach activities have been performed by N Lebreton and L Petit de La Viléon on the race stand to explain how floats operate, how they are deployed using video made by the skippers, how the data are processed and can be viewed by general public.
A vidéo was made during the deployment from the MOD 70 Race For Water. More actuality on the Rave for Water web site: here et UNESCO web site here.
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- The SOJANA et le FOFTEIN of RYE are the first sailing vessels that deployed 4 ARVORS floats (2 each) in June 2012 during the Maxitransat 2012 race from Antigua to Europe. To know more refer to Alexia Barrier narrative :
News-Maxitransatlantic-Sojana-2012 941.40 kB
The Goélette Rara Avis
The RARA AVIS schooner is own by the AJD association created by the father Jaouen in 1951 to help young people that have difficulties in their life.
It left Brest port on the 15th December 2012 for Antigua with 4 ARVOR floats on board that will be deployed between Canary Islands and Antigua is areas poorly sampled by Argo.
Rara Avis © AJD AJD
CONCLUSION
Twenty floats were deployed using these opportunity vessels in 2012 . These new partnerships were rich in term of human exchanges with people interested in oceanography sciences. Great experiences that will be renewed in the future.