QIS for Ocean Science: Why 4,000 Autonomous Floats Generate More Data Than Anyone Can Synthesize

Every 10 days, a cylindrical instrument about the size of a fire extinguisher descends 2,000 meters into the ocean, drifts at depth for a week, then rises to the surface recording temperature and salinity at every pressure level. It transmits its profile via satellite in under 90 seconds, then sinks again. It does this for four years before its battery dies. There are than 4,000 of these instruments. They are in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, and Arctic Oceans. They are maintained by 30 countries. They have collectively produced over 3M profiles since 2000.