Global experiment launched by Russian meteorologists would help to reveal oceanic processes that influence the climate on Earth.
The Argo experiment was launched in 2007. It is a global network of three thousand oceanic probes that ply the waters measuring its temperature, salinity and density along with velocity and dicrection of underwater currents. The probes also dive at a programmed depth to perform the measurements. After that they rise to the water surface. All obtained data is transmitted to the scientific centers via satellite connection.
– As a result of this experiment, in ten to fifteen years we will know as much about the World ocean as we know about the atmosphere, – says Roman Vilfand, head of Hydrometeorological Center of Russian Federation. – So far the ocean was terra incognita for us, or, so to say, aqua incognita.
Who knows, maybe in a decade jokes about weather forecasts won't amuse us anymore...
Photo: giss.nasa.gov.