More than 2000 deployments per year are required to maintain the two global arrays, which are an essential part of the Global ClimateObservingSystem, providing crucial data for weather forecasts and information on the heat content of the oceans.
As such, they form an essential component of marine observing systems established as part of the World Weather Watch, the World Climate Research Programme, the Global Ocean ObservingSystem, the Global ClimateObservingSystem and other meteorological and oceanographic operational and research programmes.
The concept of a global ocean observingsystem grew from the realisation that understanding and forecasting climate change would require a long-term, multivariate ocean observingsystem.