• Atmosphere
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.4-23
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• 2004

To monitor the world's oceans and understand the role of the oceans for climate change, an Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography (ARGO) program has been carried out since year 2000. Autonomous profiling floats of about 820 are reporting the vertical temperature, salinity, and pressure profiles of the upper 2000 m underwater at regular time intervals. Meteorological Research Institute (METRI) of Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) launched 45 floats at the East Sea and the western Pacific to understand characteristics of water properties and develop the global ocean observation system as a part of international cooperation project. In this study, we introduce ARGO program, METRI-ARGO and the features of APEX float itself and their data formats. We also describe the significant points to be considered for using ARGO data.

• Atmosphere
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.561-570
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• 2023

In order to improve the predictability of marine high-impacts weather such as typhoon and high waves, the marine observation network is an essential because it could be rapidly changed by strong air-sea interaction. In this regard, the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Korea Meteorological Administration (NIMS/KMA) has promoted the Argo float observation program since 2001 to participate in the International Argo program. In this study, current status and future direction of the NIMS/KMA Argo program are presented through the internal meeting and external expert forum. To date, a total of 264 Argo floats have been deployed into the offshore around the Korean Peninsula and the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The real-time and delayed modes quality control (QC) system of Argo data was developed, and an official regional data assembling center (call-sign 'KM') was run. In 2002, the Argo homepage was established for the systematic management and dissemination of Argo data for domestic and international users. The future goal of the NIMS/KMA Argo program is to improve response to the marine high-impacts weather through a marine environment monitoring and observing system. The promotion strategy for this is divided into four areas: strengthening policy communication, developing observation strategies, promoting utilization research, and activating international cooperation.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.204-211
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• 2004

Autonomous profiling CTD floats are a useful tool for observing the oceans. We, however, cannot perform post-deployment calibration of the CTD's attached to the floats, and the assessment of the accuracy and stability of the profile data from the floats is one of the important issues in the delayed mode quality control of the profiles. Variations in salinity in the intermediate level of East Sea is comparable to the accuracy of salinity data required by the international Argo Program, which is 0.01. Therefore, we can assess the credibility of salinity data from the floats deployed in the East Sea using three independent methods while considering the East Sea as a salinity calibration bath. The methods utilized here are 1) comparison of high quality CTD data and float data obtained at similar locations at similar time, 2) comparison of float data obtained at similar locations at similar time, and 3) investigation of long term stability and accuracy of salinity data from parking depths. All three methods show that without any calibration, the salinity data satisfy the accuracy criterion by the Argo Program. While assuming that the intermediate level temperature in the East Sea is as homogeneous as the salinity, we have applied the three methods to temperature data. We found that the accuracy of temperature reading is 0.01$^{\circ}C$, which is about twice larger than the requirement by the Argo Program, 0.005$^{\circ}C$. This does not mean that the temperature readings are inaccurate, because the intermediate level temperature does vary spacially and temporally more than the accuracy interval required by the Argo Program. If we take into account the variation in the intermediate level temperature, the accuracy of temperature data from the floats is not significantly different from that proposed by the Argo Program. Therefore, one could use both temperature and salinity profiles from the floats assessed in this study without calibration.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1353-1361
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• 2008

Quality control of Argo(Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography) data is crucial by reason that salinity measurements are liable to experience some drift and offset due to biofouling, contamination of sensor and wash-out of biocide. The automated Argo real-time quality control has a limit of sorting data quality, so that WJO program is adopted as standardized method of Argo delayed mode quality control (DMQc) in the world that is a precise quality control method. We conducted DMQC on pressure, temperature and salinity measured by Argo floats in the Pacific Ocean including expert evaluation. Particularly, salinity data were corrected using WJO program. 4 salinity profiles of Argo delayed mode were compared with nearby in situ CTD data and other Argo data in deep layer where oceanographic conditions are stable in time and space. The differences of both salinities were lower than target accuracy of Argo. As compared with the difference of salinities before DMQC, those after DMQC decreased by 60-80 percent. Quality of delayed mode salinity data seemed to be improved correcting salinity data suggested by WJO program.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.379-385
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• 2006

Meteorological Research Institute (METRI) participates the R&E (Research and Education) program of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation,"Variability of ocean status around Ulleung basin and Dok-do by using ARGO data" as a part of "Carricula development for gifted students" program. From this program, we support students to have an opportunity for handling scientific data with advanced technology and inspire their scientific interests. In this article, we introduce the training processes of this program and the results of data analysis by the students themselves.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2005

Continued observation of ARGO floats for years(about 4 years) makes the conductivity sensor more vulnerable to fouling by marine life and associated drift in salinity measurements. In this paper, we address this issue by making use of floats deployed in different years. Floats deployed in the East Sea and the Indian Ocean are examined to find out float-to-float match-ups in such a way that an older float pops up simultaneously with a newer deployment (with tolerable space-time difference). A time difference of less than five days and space difference of less than 100km are considered for the match-up data sets. For analysis of the salinity drift under the stable water mass, observations of the floats from deepest water masses have been used. From the cross-check of ARGO floats in the East Sea and the Indian Ocean, it is found that there is a systematic drift in the older float compared to later deployments. All drift results, consistently show negative bias indicating the typical nature of drift from fouled sensors. However, the drift is much less than 0.01, the specified accuracy of ARGO program.

• Atmosphere
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.141-148
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• 2005

Currently several important observation programs are planned or being performed both domestically and internationally. In this paper, a brief introduction is provided on international programs such as THORPEX, ARGO and GEOSS as well as a domestic program KEOP. In addition, discussions on various issues related to observations and future visions are provided.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.461-468
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• 2008

Competitive power of pelagic fishery in Korea has been weakened by the domestic and international problems such as wage increase and exclusive economic zone. To make it worse, fishing fleet spends more than 80% of fishing time on searching fishing grounds. Real-time information on oceanographic data, temperature in particular, are likely to contribute to raise efficiency of fishing. However, available data obtained by satellite remote sensing, fixed buoy and drifting buoy, limited to sea surface or fixed positions. ARGO (Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography), an international program, has delivered vertical profiles of temperature and salinity in the upper 2000m of the world ocean every 10 days using freely moving floats. We have developed real-time oceanographic information system for pelagic fishery based on the Argo data which has the contents of vertical profile, horizontal distribution and vertical section of temperature around fishing grounds and searched data can be download unrestrictedly. Comparison of skipjack catch with sea surface temperature and depth of $20^{\circ}C$ derived from Argo data in the West Equatorial Pacific revealed that Argo data are able to help fishing fleet to find fishing grounds and to increase catch.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.49-59
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• 2012

KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) has developed an SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging) system since 2008. The name of the development program is ARGO (Accurate Ranging system for Geodetic Observation). ARGO has a wide range of applications in the satellite precise orbit determination and space geodesy research using SLR with mm-level accuracy. ARGO-M (Mobile, bistatic 10 cm transmitting/40 cm receiving telescopes) and ARGO-F (Fixed stationary, about 1 m transmitting/receiving integrated telescope) SLR systems development will be completed by 2014. In 2011, ARGO-M system integration was completed. At present ARGO-M is in the course of system calibration, functionality, and performance tests. It consists of six subsystems, OPS (Optics System), TMS (Tracking Mount System), OES (Opto-Electronic System), CDS (Container-Dome System), LAS (Laser System) and AOS (ARGO Operation System). In this paper, ARGO-M system structure and integration status are introduced and described.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2004

An international project, known as Argo, for collecting data on temperature, salinity and velocity of currents in the world's oceans, has been started in the year 2000 and the full Argo array of approximately 3000 floats will be deployed by 2006. 18 countries deployed 1,023 floats, which are operating in the ocean of the world as of December 2003. In the present study, we tried to predict float distribution and a rate of drifting ashore of the floats after their termination based upon a product of the ocean general circulation model of JAMSTEC (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center). We first evaluated reliability of the model prodilct quantitatively by comparing trajectories of surface buoys of WOCE Surface Velocity Program (SVP) and those predicted by the model surface current field. It is found that the model is acceptable for practical application to deploy floats and to estimate those trajectories. 653 particles at 3-degree spacing are used to investigate the ratio of floats drifted ashore, given that during the first 4 years floats cycle between the surface and 2000m for 10 days and then floats are on just the surface for 100 years. The simulation indicates that about 29% of deployed floats will be drifted ashore within 100-year.