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Ocean in Miniature

November 9, 2014

WHOI engineer Bob Tavares headed up to the roof of the Clark South building recently to check on an Argo SOLO-I float deployed in the 10-meter test well. The Argo network consists of more than 3000 autonomous, drifting floats that automatically sample the water column to a maximum depth of 2000 meters every ten days over a maximum period of four years. Each float records fundamental physical properties of the ocean—temperature and conductivity (a measure of salinity)—and sends its data back to shore via sattelite when it surfaces.(Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)