ARGO floats vs. ship-based CTDs: an overall metrological comparison in the whole Mediterranean Sea
Abstract
The widespread network of temperature/salinity profiling floats, known as Argo, has nowadays become a fundamental component of the ocean observing system. Since Argo floats usually are not recovered and should last up to five years without any re-calibration, their onboard sensors can reasonably suffer some drift and/or offset. During the years, very refined methods have been developed and implemented to post-process the Argo data, in order to correct the response of their profiling CTD (Conductivity – Temperature – Depth) sensors, in particular adjusting the salinity drift. The core of this delayed-mode quality control is the comparison of Argo data with reference climatology. At the same time, it’s still considered metrologically fundamental the experimental comparison of Argo profiles with quasi-collocated in space and quasi-simultaneous in time ship-based CTD profiles. In this paper an overall comparison of Argo floats vs. shipboard CTDs was made, in terms of temperature and salinity profiles in the whole Mediterranean Sea and under strict spacetime matching conditions.
Event details
- Event
- MetroSea 2019
- Technical Committee
- TC19
- info@metrosea.org
- Place
- Genoa, ITALY
- Time
- 3 October 2019 - 5 October 2019
- Website
- http://www.metrosea.org