| W o r k s h o p |  |
| Report of the First Argo Science Workshop |
The First Argo Science Workshop was held at the Yakult
Hall (located in Higashi-Shimbashi, Tokyo) from 12 November to 14
November 2003 under the auspices of the Japan Marine Science and Technology
Center (JAMSTEC) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). More than 250 people from 22 countries gathered at the Yakult Hall with a view to further promoting the Argo project by actively exchanging information on the early results obtained using Argo and demonstrating the present and likely future value of Argo for a wide range of applications. The attendees were mainly experts in oceanography and meteorology, but administrators, people from private sector, college students and general public were also present, which reflected the high level of public interest in the project. The Argo project is a name of an international project started in 2000 with the Japan-US initiatives in order to build an observing system to monitor and understand ocean variations in real time. |
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| For this project, profiling floats so called "Argo float"
are used. The Argo float repeats up-and-down cycle automatically diving
to the depth of 2000m, and measures temperature and salinity profiles
about every ten days when it accents to the surface. With 3000 of
the profiling floats, the Argo project intends to observe structures
of internal ocean with spacing of every 300km. Presently, about 1000
Argo floats are continuously working in the world ocean. By promoting the project, we can expect to increase the accuracy of long-term weather forecast. Moreover, it is expected that the project will bring incredible impacts upon the conventional oceanography in terms of data acquisition, since the project enable us to obtain the same number of temperature and salinity data annually, that have been accumulated for many years. Started with the introduction by Dr. Dean Roemmich, the chair of the Argo Science Executive Meeting, 43 researchers made oral presentations during the workshop. The topics of the presentations varied a wider range from such as research outcomes using Argo and other floats to possible impact of Argo project upon climate prediction as well as data management issues to obtain reliable data. The audiences participated actively in the question and answer session, and even the Hall became a big "round table" during the discussion session inviting all the attendees to join the discussion. During the poster session, attendees visited each poster and actively exchanged their views with other researchers. In addition, float and sensor manufacturers demonstrated their products in their exhibition booths. There were totally 7 participations. The Workshop was concluded as a success by the presentation of Dr. Stan Wilson, a representative from the workshop co-sponsor NOAA. He mentioned a wilder range of possibilities that we can expect from the advancement of the Argo project in not only scientific term but also benefits of its applications. |
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