Pacific Ocean

Supported by the GMMC in 2010, the SECARGO project has enabled the ARGO / Coriolis network development, and the collection of new CTDs / XBTs measurements in a region far from sparse in situ observations. The entire network of measurements in the Southwest Pacific Ocean is thus expanding gradually, and allows for a better regional understanding of the circulation. In particular, recent results from Gasparin et al. (2011 and 2012) provide new investigative ways for the study of the dynamics of the Coral Sea.

The main objective of the FLOPS project was to deployed 20 ARGO floats along the Chilean and Peruvian coasts in order to study i) the vertical water mass structure in the eastern Pacific, ii) the subsurface oxygen minimum zone observed in the eastern South-Pacific and iii) the vertical thermohaline structure of the observed meso-scale eddies. Some of the floats deployed as part of this program were equipped with oxygen sensors.