Advancing ocean monitoring and knowledge for societal benefit: the urgency to expand Argo to OneArgo by 2030

The ocean plays an essential role in regulating Earth’s climate, influencing weather conditions, providing sustenance for large populations, moderating anthropogenic climate change, encompassing massive biodiversity, and sustaining the global economy. Human activities are changing the oceans, stressing ocean health, threatening the critical services the ocean provides to society, with significant consequences for human well-being and safety, and economic prosperity. Effective and sustainable monitoring of the physical, biogeochemical state and ecosystem structure of the ocean, to enable climate adaptation, carbon management and sustainable marine resource management is urgently needed. The Argo program, a cornerstone of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), has revolutionized ocean observation by providing real-time, freely accessible global temperature and salinity data of the upper 2,000m of the ocean (Core Argo) using cost-effective simple robotics. For the past 25 years, Argo data have underpinned many ocean, climate and weather forecasting services, playing a fundamental role in safeguarding goods and lives. Argo data have enabled clearer assessments of ocean warming, sea level change and underlying driving processes, as well as scientific breakthroughs while supporting public awareness and education. Building on Argo’s success, OneArgo aims to greatly expand Argo’s capabilities by 2030, expanding to full-ocean depth, collecting biogeochemical parameters, and observing the rapidly changing polar regions. Providing a synergistic subsurface and global extension to several key space-based Earth Observation missions and GOOS components, OneArgo will enable biogeochemical and ecosystem forecasting and new long-term climate predictions for which the deep ocean is a key component. Driving forward a revolution in our understanding of marine ecosystems and the poorly-measured polar and deep oceans, OneArgo will be instrumental to assess sea level change, ocean carbon fluxes, acidification and deoxygenation. Emerging OneArgo applications include new views of ocean mixing, ocean bathymetry and sediment transport, and ecosystem resilience assessment. Implementing OneArgo requires about $100 million annually, a significant increase compared to present Argo funding. OneArgo is a strategic and cost-effective investment which will provide decision-makers, in both government and industry, with the critical knowledge needed to navigate the present and future environmental challenges, and safeguard both the ocean and human wellbeing for generations to come.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Marine Science
Published
2025-06-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1593904
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.14

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article

Advancing ocean monitoring and knowledge for societal benefit: the urgency to expand Argo to OneArgo by 2030

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9 citations
Frontiers in Marine Science
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
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article

Advancing ocean monitoring and knowledge for societal benefit: the urgency to expand Argo to OneArgo by 2030

Katja Fennel, Alberto González-Santana, Kenneth S. Johnson, Giorgio Dall’Olmo, Toshio Suga, Pierre‐Yves Le Traon, Hao Zuo, Steven R. Jayne, Peter R. Oke, Dean Roemmich, Karina von Schuckmann, Paul James Durack, Nathalie Zilberman, Magdalena Balmaseda, Virginie Thierry, Yosuke Fujii, Claire Gourcuff, Florent Gasparin, M. Susan Lozier, Marina Tonani, Carolyn Scheurle, Marine Bollard, Alison R. Gray, Richard A. Crane, Damien Desbruyères, Walker O Smith, Joanna Post, Susan Wijffels, Fei Chai, Hervé Claustre, James Scourse, Sophie Cravatte, Brian King, Orens Pasqueron de Fommervault, Andrea J. Fassbender, Elaine L. McDonagh, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Helene T. Hewitt, Ryan R. Rykaczewski, Esmee van Wijk, William Llovel, Kristian Mogensen, Udaya T. V. S. Bhaskar, Tamaryn Morris, P.W. Boyd, Romain Cancouët, Arnaud Le Boyer, Oscar Schofield, Megan Scanderbeg, John M. Lyman, Xiaogang Xing, Janet Sprintall, Benoît Meyssignac, Stefano Ciavatta, Noé Poffa, Shubha Sathyendranath, Adrian Martin, Gregory C. Johnson, Mathieu Belbéoch, Jacqueline Boutin, Breck Owens
article en
9 citations

Abstract

The ocean plays an essential role in regulating Earth’s climate, influencing weather conditions, providing sustenance for large populations, moderating anthropogenic climate change, encompassing massive biodiversity, and sustaining the global economy. Human activities are changing the oceans, stressing ocean health, threatening the critical services the ocean provides to society, with significant consequences for human well-being and safety, and economic prosperity. Effective and sustainable monitoring of the physical, biogeochemical state and ecosystem structure of the ocean, to enable climate adaptation, carbon management and sustainable marine resource management is urgently needed. The Argo program, a cornerstone of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), has revolutionized ocean observation by providing real-time, freely accessible global temperature and salinity data of the upper 2,000m of the ocean (Core Argo) using cost-effective simple robotics. For the past 25 years, Argo data have underpinned many ocean, climate and weather forecasting services, playing a fundamental role in safeguarding goods and lives. Argo data have enabled clearer assessments of ocean warming, sea level change and underlying driving processes, as well as scientific breakthroughs while supporting public awareness and education. Building on Argo’s success, OneArgo aims to greatly expand Argo’s capabilities by 2030, expanding to full-ocean depth, collecting biogeochemical parameters, and observing the rapidly changing polar regions. Providing a synergistic subsurface and global extension to several key space-based Earth Observation missions and GOOS components, OneArgo will enable biogeochemical and ecosystem forecasting and new long-term climate predictions for which the deep ocean is a key component. Driving forward a revolution in our understanding of marine ecosystems and the poorly-measured polar and deep oceans, OneArgo will be instrumental to assess sea level change, ocean carbon fluxes, acidification and deoxygenation. Emerging OneArgo applications include new views of ocean mixing, ocean bathymetry and sediment transport, and ecosystem resilience assessment. Implementing OneArgo requires about $100 million annually, a significant increase compared to present Argo funding. OneArgo is a strategic and cost-effective investment which will provide decision-makers, in both government and industry, with the critical knowledge needed to navigate the present and future environmental challenges, and safeguard both the ocean and human wellbeing for generations to come.

Frontiers in Marine ScienceVol. 12
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU), Met Office (GB), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Tasmania (AU), Dalhousie University (CA), Georgia Institute of Technology (US), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JP), Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (US), Australian Antarctic Division (AU), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (IN), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), Ifremer (FR), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (GB), Université de Bretagne Occidentale (FR), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), Xiamen University (CN), National Oceanography Centre (GB), University of Washington (US), Tohoku University (JP), Ministry of Natural Resources (CN), University of Exeter (GB), NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (US), Japan Meteorological Agency (JP), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (GB), University of California San Diego (US), Sorbonne Université (FR), Instituto Español de Oceanografía (ES), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (FR), Ministry of Earth Sciences (IN), NORCE Research AS (NO), Second Institute of Oceanography (CN), Laboratoire d’Études en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (FR), Mercator Ocean (France) (FR), NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (US), Laboratory for Ocean Physics and Satellite Remote Sensing (FR), South African Environmental Observation Network (ZA), European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (FR), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (FR), Océanopolis (FR), Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (ES), Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-Mer (FR), Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (FR), Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (FR), National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (IT), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Meteorological Research Institute (JP), Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (FR), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US)
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