Argo GDAC: 5 Billion Ocean Observations from 18,000 Profiling Floats

Argo GDAC is an international ocean observation dataset containing 5 billion in situ measurements from a fleet of 18,000 profiling floats, with 4,000 currently active. The program, started 20 years ago, is a major asset for ocean and climate science and contributes to IOCCP reports. The dataset is a collection of 18,000 NetCDF files hosted on S3.

Use Cases

• Modeling deep ocean currents based on float trajectory data
• Analyzing long-term ocean temperature and salinity trends based on in situ observations
• Studying ocean chemistry and biogeochemical processes based on profiling float measurements
• Validating and calibrating satellite-derived oceanographic data based on the in situ dataset

Strengths

• Contains 5 billion in situ ocean observations, providing a substantial volume of data.
• Data originates from 18,000 profiling floats, indicating a global-scale collection effort.
• The program has been running for 20 years, suggesting a long-term temporal record.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Euro-Argo

Collection Method

Observations collected by an international fleet of autonomous profiling floats.

Time Range

Program started 20 years ago; temporal coverage is likely long-term but unspecified.

Freshness

Last updated is unknown.

Geography

Global ocean coverage, inferred from the description of floats drifting in deep ocean currents.