Argo Italy

Euro-Argo ERIC is Europe's contribution to the international Argo programme, a global initiative that deploys autonomous instruments (Argo profiling floats) to monitor the ocean, enhancing our understanding of ocean dynamics and their influence on climate. Established in 2014, Euro-Argo operates as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), coordinating efforts across member states to manage approximately 25% of the global Argo float network. This includes deploying around 800 floats, with a focus on European seas and high-latitude regions.

Euro-Argo is tightly linked to the international Argo programme, with which it shares infrastructure, data, and scientific objectives. The Argo programme was initiated in 1999 as a pilot project endorsed by the Climate Research Program of the World Meteorological Organization, GOOS, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. The Argo network is a global array of about 4000 autonomous instruments, deployed over the world ocean, reporting subsurface ocean properties to a wide range of users via satellite transmission links to data centres. It provides open-access, real-time quality-controlled data to the global scientific community and the public.

Thanks to an international collaboration of more than 30 countries started in 2001, the Argo programme succeeded in setting up the first-ever global in-situ ocean observing network in the history of oceanography. The infrastructure relies on profiling floats that operate primarily beneath the ocean surface, between the surface and 2000 m or 6000 m depths, drifting with currents while collecting valuable data. The Argo network is a cost-effective, long-term ocean monitoring system and its introduction marked the first time that comprehensive, real-time coverage of the global ocean became possible. Additionally, it provides essential data for operational ocean monitoring and forecasting systems, significantly enhancing extended predictions of the atmosphere and oceans.

In 2008, in that framework, 12 European countries gathered within the Euro-Argo project with a common aim to provide an optimized and sustained European contribution to Argo by deploying 250 floats per year. Given that Argo floats are battery-powered, maintaining the target array requires the regular deployment of new units.

Euro-Argo ERIC was officially established in 2014 and is now able to take on new challenges, including addressing specific European and international interests such as marginal seas, high-latitude regions, biogeochemical measurements, and observations at depths greater than 2000 meters.

Argo Italy is an integral part of Euro-Argo ERIC, the European research infrastructure that coordinates the efforts of member states. It is the Italian programme responsible for the management and data distribution of the Argo floats operated by Italy. The National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS - Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale) is the Italian research institution responsible for Italy's contribution to the Euro-Argo ERIC programme. It is primarily responsible for coordinating the activities of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Argo Regional Center (MedArgo), with a secondary focus on the Southern Ocean, particularly the Ross Sea. 

Argo Italy plays a key role in providing data used by Copernicus to develop core marine products and downstream services. It is also a vital part of GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems).