Building the UK BioGeoChemical Argo array: the UK contribution to a global integrated biogeochemical autonomous ocean sensing network

海洋在维持地球上的生命、为我们提供生物资源和调节气候方面发挥着至关重要的作用。需要进行海洋观测，以了解海洋和气候在过去的变化情况，并了解海洋环境及其资源的现状。此外，全球海洋观测对于规划、资源管理、政策制定和恢复海洋健康所需的熟练预报至关重要。阿尔戈温度和盐度剖面浮标阵列改变了我们理解和预测海平面变化、海洋热含量和海面温度及其对天气、气候、生态系统、人和基础设施的影响的能力。Argo阵列在为预测系统提供初始条件和推动新工艺理解方面具有双重作用，从而导致模型改进。然而，主要的海洋生物地球化学挑战，包括理解海洋在人类碳吸收，全球海洋脱氧，海洋生产力和健康中的作用，并没有得到核心Argo阵列的解决。生物地球化学Argo（BGC Argo）是在Argo阵列成功的基础上，通过增加pH值、氧气、硝酸盐、叶绿素、悬浮颗粒和下降流辐照度的生物地球化学传感器。来自BGC Argo的数据将推动对海洋地球化学循环及其大尺度动态的理解发生变革性转变：这些过程对快速变化的气候，海洋生产力和健康产生深远影响。转型将通过获取具有前所未有的空间和时间分辨率的数据来实现，这在BGC浮子开发之前是不可能的。BGC浮标每年产生的氧气含量已经超过所有研究船的总和。BGC Argo科学和实施计划要求全球阵列。试验阵列已经证明了建立全球阵列的能力，但迄今为止，只有少数部署的浮标测量了所有6个BGC参数。联合王国通过七国集团海洋和海洋未来倡议，承诺为BGC Argo阵列作出贡献。在最近为9个英国BGC浮标（约占英国预期阵列的15%）获得资金后，NOC已开始履行这一承诺，并开发了一个国家设施，用于质量控制和及时分发概况数据。我们将采购并在大西洋部署另外16个BGC Argo浮标（约占英国阵列的25%），所有浮标都配备了国际Argo要求的6个参数。通过与气候有关的大西洋部门科学（CLASS）国家能力巡航和英国海洋学数据中心，为这一能力的逐步变化提供质量受控的开放获取数据的部署资源和生命周期成本已经到位。CLASS将资助一名浮标协调员管理浮标，并通过国际Argo管理系统影响全球阵列的发展。

The ocean plays a vital role in sustaining life on planet Earth, providing us with living resources and regulating climate. Ocean observations are required to understand how the ocean and climate has changed in the past and to characterise the status of the marine environment and its resources today. Furthermore, global ocean observations are essential for skilful forecasts needed for planning, resource management, policy development and restoring ocean health. The Argo array of profiling temperature and salinity floats has transformed our ability to understand and predict sea level change, ocean heat content and sea surface temperature and their impacts on weather, climate, ecosystems, people and infrastructure. The Argo array has a dual role in providing initial conditions for predictive systems and in driving new process understanding that has led to model improvement. However, major ocean biogeochemical challenges including understanding the ocean's role in anthropogenic carbon uptake, de-oxygenation of the global oceans, and ocean productivity and health are not addressed by the Core Argo array. BioGeoChemical Argo (BGC Argo) builds on the success of the Argo array through the addition of biogeochemical sensors for pH, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll, suspended particles and downwelling irradiance. Data from BGC Argo will drive a transformative shift in the understanding of biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and its dynamics at large scales: processes which have a profound impact on a rapidly changing climate, ocean productivity and health. Transformation will come through the acquisition of data with unprecedented space and time resolution, which was impossible before the development of BGC floats. BGC floats already produce more oxygen profiles per year than all research ships combined.The BGC Argo Science and Implementation Plan calls for a global array. Pilot arrays have demonstrated the capacity to build the global array, but to date only a handful of the deployed floats have measured all 6 BGC parameters. The UK, through the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, has committed to contributing to the BGC Argo array. Having recently secured funding for 9 UK BGC floats (~15% of expected UK array), NOC has begun to deliver on that commitment and to develop a national facility for quality-control and distribution of the profile data in a timely way. We will procure and deploy a further 16 BGC Argo floats in the Atlantic (~25% of UK array), all equipped with the 6 parameters required by international Argo. Resources for deployment and lifetime costs of providing quality-controlled, open-access data for this step-change in capability are in place through Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) National Capability cruises and the British Oceanographic Data Centre. CLASS will fund a float coordinator to manage the floats and influence the development of the global array through the international Argo governance system.