Introduction
A Forum on Deployment and Operation of ARGO Floats was organized at the Headquarters of the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in Yokosuka, Japan, from 5 to 9 March 2001.
Fifteen participants from Asia and the south Pacific region were invited. A list of participants is in Annex 1. The Program of the Forum is also attached as Annex 2.
Background
The ocean monitoring system will enable to obtain the high quality data of upper and middle layers of the world oceans almost simultaneously with high resolution in space and in time that will support us understand large scale, on going oceanic variations. It is expected that the project will provide substantial improvement in the long-term weather forecast. The monitoring system will also greatly contribute to the study of inter-annual, decadal and inter-decadal variations of the Earth's climate system.
Objectives
The Forum invited who are responsible marine affairs management in each country and/or interested in ARGO Project from island countries in the Asia, the western equatorial Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and provide them the significance and the contents of the Project and ocean observation as a whole: deployment plan and method of ARGO floats, the data processing and management, and application of ARGO observed data to weather and marine forecasting.
Summary
1. General
Forum participants were well aware of the usefulness of ocean observations by surface research vessels, moored and floating buoys not only to improve understandings of the nature of the ocean but also to be of benefit to human community in advancing capabilities of weather forecast as well as in predicting ocean conditions and fish migration.
