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。为了了解海洋和气候在过去是如何变化的，以及描述当今海洋环境及其资源的状况，需要进行海洋观测。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。Argo的温度和盐度分析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、人类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过程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，包括了解海洋在人为碳吸收、全球海洋脱氧以及海洋生产力和健康方面的作用，并没有得到Core Argo阵列的解决。生物地球化学Argo （BGC Argo）建立在Argo阵列成功的基础上，通过添加生物地球化学传感器来测量pH值、氧气、硝酸盐、叶绿素、悬浮颗粒和下坡辐照度。来自BGC Argo的数据将推动对海洋生物地球化学循环及其大尺度动力学的理解发生革命性转变：这一过程对快速变化的气候、海洋生产力和健康产生深远影响。转换将通过前所未有的空间和时间分辨率的数据采集来实现，这在BGC浮标开发之前是不可能的。BGC浮标每年产生的氧气量已经超过了所有研究船的总和。BGC Argo科学和实施计划要求一个全球阵列。试点阵列已经展示了构建全局阵列的能力，但迄今为止，部署的浮标中只有少数能够测量所有6个BGC参数。通过七国集团海洋未来倡议，英国承诺为BGC Argo阵列做出贡献。NOC最近获得了9个英国BGC浮子的资金（约占英国预期浮子阵列的15%），已经开始履行承诺，并开发一个国家设施，用于质量控制和及时分发剖面数据。我们将在大西洋采购并部署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所需的6个参数。通过气候关联大西洋部门科学（CLASS）国家能力巡航和英国海洋数据中心，部署资源和提供质量控制、开放获取数据的生命周期成本已经到位。CLASS将资助一个浮子协调员来管理浮子，并通过国际Argo治理体系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.