Activities
The ERI coordinates and strengthens the European contribution to the international Argo programme. Euro-Argo must be considered in its entirety : not only the instruments (floats), but also the logistics necessary for their preparation and deployment, field operations, the associated data streams and data processing and archiving centres. Maintaining a level of 800 floats requires high level cooperation between the European partners and efficiency in all implementation aspects.
So that the new Euro-Argo Infrastructure will :
- supervise operation of the infrastructure and ensure that it evolves in accordance with the requirements set forth by the research and operational communities
- coordinate and supervise float deployments to ensure that International Argo and Euro-Argo objectives are fulfilled (e.g. contribution to the International Argo global array, filling gaps, improved regional coverage in the European regional and marginal seas, open data access, etc)
- supervise and organize data processing, quality control, and access to ensure easy and timely availability to all users
- monitor the operation of the infrastructure (e.g. array performance monitoring)
- decide on the evolution of the Euro-Argo infrastructure (e.g. data system, products, technology and new sensors, number of floats deployed per year)
- share expertise on all scientific/technological developments and use of International Argo data
- organize float procurement at European level
- maintain the links with the research and operational (including GMES) user communities
- link with the International Argo structure (Argo Project Office, international Argo Steering Team, Argo Information Centre). The European structure will complement and strengthen the international one; it will consolidate and make more efficient the European contributions to International Argo and develop a leading European role in International Argo and its future evolution.
As part of its activities, the E-A ERIC shall also :
- support access to the E-A ERIC by the European and international scientific and operational communities
- contribute to the development of scientific research using the E-A ERIC
- carry out any necessary research and development work required for the evolution of the observing array and of the data delivery system; or to address scientific topics of relevance to Argo.
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