Video: Deep SOLO

Video footage from CalCOFI shows the Jan. 24, 2013 deployment of a Deep SOLO prototype. The instrument could soon complement floats used in the global Argo network, an array of 3,500 instruments in the world’s oceans that afford scientists an unprecedented record of basic conditions in all ocean basins simultaneously. Deep SOLO uses a similar pump to Argo floats, but is housed in a glass sphere rather than in an aluminum cylinder in order to be able to dive to depths as great as 6,000 meters (19,700 feet). It is designed by Jeff Sherman, Russ Davis, and David Black of the Scripps Instrument Development Group. Upper-ocean Argo floats measure seasonal, interannual, and decadal variability, while the deep array will be more focused on decadal signals, said Argo scientist Dean Roemmich.