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A NEW WORLD VIEWA network devoted to recording the state of the oceans is nearing its full complement. Will it remain intact as its decades-long mission begins?By Robert Monroe Sometime this fall, probably in a remote stretch of Southern Ocean between New Zealand and Chile, a measurement device trussed in a cardboard box will be dispatched from the back of a ship. It will be a business-as-usual ceremony resembling a burial at sea without the salutes or prayers this despite the fact that it marks an unprecedented scientific achievement. For the worldwide measurement network known as Argo, which was first conceived at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego a decade ago, this is float number 3,000. Along with the other 2,999, this float takes the "vital signs" of the oceans: temperature, salinity, and velocity. This float represents the end of Argo's deployment phase and the beginning of the program's "sustained maintenance phase."  
Despite the dry moniker, this newer phase is what excites the people behind Argo. A layman may appreciate the quest for 3,000 the way he or she might follow Barry Bonds' quest for 756 but for the scientists, the value of Argo will come not from a number but from decades of data-gathering. Only with "sustained maintenance" will Argo reach its goal to transform the way society understands the oceans. Next page: Salinity readings from downtown Brisbane |
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