Southern Ocean Argo Regional Centre

The Southern Ocean Argo Regional Centre has the responsibility to validate all float data in the Southern Ocean (south of 35°S) through rigorous scrutiny and to derive products as set out by the international Argo community.

All Argo data is retrieved from the Global Data Centres (GDACs) and a basin wide examination of data is made before making recommends for corrections to the principal investigator (PI). Once corrections have been agreed with the PI the corrected data are sent back to the GDACs.

To find out more about Southern Ocean Argo floats, follow the links below or from the side menu bar

• Interactive map — Here you can view, regardless of status, all Southern Ocean floats on a fully zoomable map. Individual floats may be queried to return basic information on deployment and the last profile. Links to the float data in netCDF format are also available via the map.
• Browse products — Data from all Argo floats are assimilated in to the Forecasting Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM). Access Southern Ocean FOAM images of potential temperature, salinity and velocity supplied by the Met Office at monthly intervals.

The Southern Ocean Argo Regional Centre is a collaboration between BODC and Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, Australia (CSIRO).

The primary functions of an Argo Regional Centre (ARC) are

Validate all float data in the region	Provide scientific QC as a service to national programs without such capabilities
Derive products using float data in the region	Provide advice/guidance on regional deployment needs
Assemble the best available recent hydrographic data for calibration purposes	Develop new real-time quality control tests if appropriate for the region
Determine the internal consistency of the Argo data set in the region

Contacts

Atlantic Sector — Lesley Rickards (BODC)	Australian waters — Ann Thresher (CSIRO)
Indian Ocean Sector — Lesley Rickards (BODC)	Pacific Sector — Not covered