Argo will provide significant benefits for seasonal forecasting, climate prediction and operational oceanography. Following a series of interdepartmental meetings in 1999 it was agreed that Argo is a key international programme that the UK would contribute to, to at least a GNP level of contribution at full deployment.

The UK's contribution to Argo is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and is undertaken by a partnership involving the Met Office (which also manages the project), National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOC), the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO).

The UK Argo Project was initiated in 2000 with initial funding for a three-year period which was extended for a further three years to 2006. The biggest issue currently facing UK Argo (and many other contributing countries) is now in securing longer-term funding to sustain the Argo array, even though we have already demonstrated benefits from Argo and anticipate further significant benefits from a full array.

The issue of longer-term funding for UK Argo has been recognised by both the Inter Agency Committee on Marine Science and Technology (IACMST) and the Global Environment Change Committee (GECC), as Argo is recognised as being a key component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and is specifically mentioned in the GEOSS Implementation Plan to which the UK has made a high profile ministerial commitment.

For more information on UK Argo, and a description of what has been achieved from 2001 to mid-2006, read the UK Argo Project Report (pdf, 2.3 Mb).

Our first Argo floats were deployed in January 2001, with over 200 floats having been deployed by the end of 2006. Our floats have been deployed in a wide variety of ways: from both UK and overseas research ships, by the RN, from Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) and from the air (by the US Navy). During this period five floats have been donated to Mauritius. In addition to those floats funded through the UK Argo programme a number of other floats (for which data are contributed to the Argo data system) have been procured through various research bids, these are listed below as 'Argo equivalent floats'.