Announcement of Workshop Series: The Global Biogeochemical-Argo Fleet: Knowledge to Action
May 4, 11, 18, 25 and June 1
A virtual workshop building on the priorities of the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative will be held to explore the applications of a global data-stream from the Biogeochemical-Argo array in fisheries, carbon budget verification, and environmental forecasting. The impetus for the workshop is the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative for better ocean observations to ensure sustainable use by future generations.
Recent funding by the US National Science Foundation of a $53 million project, Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC), to deploy 500 Biogeochemical-Argo profiling floats throughout the world ocean is an important step to better ocean observations. Completion of the planned BGC-Argo system will require establishing collaborations with international partners, including those beyond the G7 nations. The workshop will celebrate these initial international commitments and discuss how to ensure that the combined investment meets the priorities of the G7 and international funders and stakeholders. The workshop will prioritize next steps with partners to ensure full implementation of the array and the international collaboration required to sustain the array into the future.
The scientific applications of the Biogeochemical-Argo array are established and growing. However, the implementation of a new and robust biogeochemical data stream has not yet been incorporated in ocean management and forecasting systems. This workshop will explore the possibilities that a robust stream of data (oxygen, pH, nitrate, chlorophyll, plankton biomass, and derived products such as pCO2, dissolved inorganic carbon) could have in ecosystem management and environmental forecasting. In particular, the workshop will focus on connections between the Biogeochemical-Argo array and fisheries, regional carbon budget verification, and environmental forecasting with consideration of the open ocean to coastal system linkages.
The workshop will be held over a series of Tuesdays in May (4, 11, 18, 25) and June (1). The audience for the workshop is global, and to accommodate a global audience, the workshop sessions will be repeated twice each day at 0700 PDT Panel (1400 UTC) and 1600 PDT (2300 UTC). Many of the presentations will be prerecorded and available a week before each session starts.
NOAA’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program is a co-sponsor of this series under banners of BGC Argo and the G7 Future of the Seas. For further information, please see the workshop website: https://www.go-bgc.org/event/
