Hundreds of Biogeochemical (BGC) profiling floats have been deployed worldwide, and the number of floats is expected to continue to increase in the coming years. Specifically, the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC) is a NSF Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure project that is funded to deploy 500 BGC floats globally over the next 5 years. We expect additional significant contributions from other US and international institutions, which will build towards a sustained global array of BGC-Argo floats.

The quality-controlled, freely available data from these floats are transforming our capacity to observe, quantify, and understand ocean biogeochemical processes and how they are responding to anthropogenic pressures (e.g., acidification and deoxygenation). With improved constraints on the biological carbon pump and air-sea CO2 exchange, these data sets will also inform marine ecosystem management and decision making. 

This webinar series, hosted by GO-BGC and the OCB Project Office, aims to build and support a growing community of biogeochemical float data users. As the BGC-Argo array matures and expands its global coverage, so will the potential for scientific discovery. We hope that the applications and research findings highlighted in this webinar series will demonstrate the potential for these globally distributed datasets and inspire the community to explore novel applications, scientific questions, and new collaborations in the use of BGC-Argo data.

The first webinar of this series will be held on March 30th, 10-11 am Pacific/1-2 pm Eastern. It will cover the current status of BGC floats worldwide, projected float deployment locations, and tools that we have developed to streamline data access, followed by community discussion and Q&A.

March 30 webinar agenda:

• Introduction to the GO-BGC webinar series (Yui Takeshita, MBARI)
• Introduction to BGC-Argo and GO-BGC (Alison Gray, University of Washington)
• Upcoming float deployment plans (Yui Takeshita, MBARI) 
• How to use BGC-Argo data? (Jonathan Sharp and Hartmut Frenzel, NOAA PMEL)
• What is the quality of BGC-Argo data? (Yui Takeshita, MBARI)
• Discussion and community Q&A

Webinars will be hosted roughly quarterly. Subsequent webinars will focus on scientific or geographic themes. We will highlight emerging research results based on BGC-Argo data, and aim to promote early career researchers. All webinars will be recorded and made available through the OCB and GO-BGC websites.