The international Argo programme was initiated in 1999 as a pilot project endorsed by the Climate Research Program of the World Meteorological Organization, GOOS, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
The Argo network is a global array of more than 3500 autonomous instruments, deployed over the world ocean, reporting subsurface ocean properties to a wide range of users via satellite transmission links to data centres, as a result of international collaboration of more than 25 countries.The first-ever global in-situ ocean observing network in the history of oceanography, reached its initial target of 3000 profiling floats in 2007. Given the 4 to 5 years lifespan of the Argo floats (battery powered), there is a clear need to maintain the target array, by regularly deploying new floats.
In that framework, 12 European countries gathered in 2008 within the Euro-Argo project with a common aim to provide an optimized and sustained European contribution to Argo by deploying 250 floats per year.
After a 3-year successful preparatory phase, the Euro-Argo ERIC was established in 2014 and is now able to take up this challenge by responding also to specific European interests for marginal seas, high latitudes, biogeochemical measurements and depths greater than 2000m.