In Europe there are two DACs operated by Coriolis and BODC
The French Argo Data Centre, Coriolis, (http://www.coriolis.eu.org) which is located within Ifremer-Brest and operated by Ifremer with support of Shom, processes float data deployed by France, float data and in addition data from different European (Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Italy) and non European countries (Chili, Costa Rica, Mexico). New floats are added into the system as they are deployed. Within Argo data management organization, Coriolis plays three roles: French data centre, Global Data Centre, and leads the North Atlantic Data Centre.
An automatic real-time processing system has been developed and is operational. The raw (hexadecimal) data are received by email from the telecommunication provider (CLS ARGOS) and then automatically decoded, quality controlled according to the Argo agreed suite of automatic quality control tests (adding quality flags to the data as necessary), and sent to the GTS and the Argo GDACs. The French Argo Data Centre web-site is automatically updated.
The automatic real-time system generates the float WMO TESAC messages. The TESAC messages, containing only the data flagged as good, are automatically emailed to Météo-France where they are then disseminated on the GTS via Toulouse node.
Every day, an objective analysis is produced from the Argo dataset for the past 30 days and the residual are scanned automatically to detect profiles that are not coherent with their neighbours. These profiles are put aside and checked by an operator. All the validated data are sent in netcdf format to the two GDACs, generally within 24 hours of receipt.
In France, this is carried out by Coriolis team in collaboration with the scientific teams from CNRS, IRD and Ifremer who have been involved in the float deployment in their area of expertise. 50% of the floats have been processed in all the oceans. Collecting recent validated CTD data has improved mainly in Atlantic and this allow the statistical method to work properly more easily.
In Germany, the delayed mode processing is distributed between the various German institutions contributing to Argo, depending on their area of expertise. AWI is responsible for the southern Ocean, IfM-Hamburg is processing the German floats in the Nordic Sea, IfM-Geomar is covering the tropical and subtropical Atlantic and BSH is responsible for subpolar Atlantic. The sharing of delayed-mode data processing will be continued in the coming years, but BSH will cover all the German floats which have not been assigned a PI. All institutions have been working in close collaboration with Coriolis and delayed mode data have been provided on a 6 monthly basis. Delays in delayed-mode data processing have occurred occasionally due to changes in personal and delay in data transmission in the Southern Ocean due to ice coverage. Delayed-mode data processing follows the rules set up by the Data Management Team.
In OGS, limited activity on the delayed-mode processing of the Argo data in the Mediterranean has been performed, mostly in terms of comparisons of Argo profiles with XBT and CTD casts.
The UK DAC
The UK Argo Data Centre, (http://www.bodc.ac.uk/projects/international/argo/) which is established at BODC, processes all their float data. New floats are added into the system as they are deployed and metadata compiled; a metadata netCDF file is generated for each float and forwarded to the 2 Argo Global Data Assembly Centres (GDACs) in France (Coriolis) and the US (USGODAE).
An automatic real-time processing system has been developed and is operational. This downloads, twice daily the raw (hexadecimal) data from CLS, decodes the data stream, carries out an agreed suite of automatic quality control tests (adding quality flags to the data as necessary), and generates profile and trajectory data files in the internationally agreed formats. The UK Argo Data Centre web-site is automatically updated daily with UK float status information, a map of current float positions and temperature and salinity profile plots.
The automatic real-time system generates the float data in both WMO TESAC and Argo netCDF formats. The TESAC messages are automatically emailed to the Met Office where they are then disseminated on the GTS via Exeter (EGGR). GTS (and in the future the WMO Weather Information System) will remain the primary mechanism for receipt by the Met Office (and other National Meteorological Services) of real-time data (floats, buoys and ship data etc.) needed for meteorological and ocean forecasting.
The data in netCDF format are provided (by FTP) to the two GDACs, generally within 24 hours of receipt, and are also available from the UK Argo Data Centre web-site via an interactive map interface. In addition the technical files are updated once a week and these files are used by CSIRO Marine to populate the technical web-site.
This is carried out by BODC with support from the UKHO. A total of 4,492 delayed-mode profiles have been submitted, this is about 40% of all floats available for delayed mode processing (i.e. excluding floats that have been operating for less than 18 months)