Spain joins Euro-Argo as a new member

Spain has become member of Euro-Argo on the 1st of January 2017.

Aware of the importance of Argo as the main component of the Global Ocean Observing System, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) will be the representatives of Spain in the governance bodies of Euro-Argo ERIC and assume the commitments that imply for Spain to participate as a full member of the ERIC Euro-Argo.

Spain has contributed to the Argo observation network since the beginning of the European contribution in 2002. The Spanish contribution to Argo has been coordinated by the IEO, which has been involved together with other Spanish organizations in all the projects that have developed the European contribution to Argo. Nowadays, the IEO is involved in the first tests of the new generation of deep Argo floats that will extend the Argo network below its actual limit of 2000 meters.

Currently the Spanish contribution to the Argo network has a fleet of 10 active buoys distributed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The IEO and SOCIB have secured a minimum of 6 float/year deployment for the next 5 years.

Joaquin Tintoré (Director of the Balearic Islands Observing and Forecasting System) will represent Spain in the Council and Pedro Vélez-Belchí (Coordinator of the Spanish contribution to Argo and researcher at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography) in the Management Board.

All the information from the Spanish contribution to Argo can be found here:

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) is a public research organization (OPI), under the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, dedicated to research in marine sciences, related to the scientific knowledge of the oceans, the sustainability of the fishery resources and the marine environment. The IEO represents Spain in most of the international scientific and technological forums related to the sea and its resources. It has nine coastal oceanographic centres, five marine crop experimentation plants, and a fleet of six oceanographic vessels, including the Ramón Margalef and the Angels Alvariño. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) participated co-financing the vessels Ramón Margalef, Ángeles Alvariño and Francisco de Paula Navarro, as well as the Remote Observation Vehicle (ROV) Liropus 2000.

SOCIB (the Balearic Islands Observing and Forecasting System) is a Research Infrastructure included in the Spanish Road Map of RI from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and is a public Consortium with legal entity. SOCIB is a multi-platform distributed and integrated facility that provides streams of oceanographic data and modelling services in support to operational oceanography in a European and international frame, therefore also contributing to the needs of marine and coastal research in a global change context. Operational Oceanography is here understood in a wide sense, including both the systematic, long-term routine measurements of the seas and their interpretation and dissemination and also the sustained supply of multidisciplinary data to cover the needs of a wide range of scientific research priorities. Basic SOCIB principles are: scientific and technological excellence through peer review; science, technology and society driven objectives; support to R&D activities in the Balearic Islands (existing and new ones); integration, coordinated multiplatform, multidisciplinary and sustained (systematic, long term and different scales) monitoring, partnership between institutions; free, open and quality controlled data streams; baseline data in adherence to community standards.