No,
it’s not a fifties rock band. They’re actually
two programs that use scientific instruments to monitor important
changes throughout the world’s oceans. The Global Drifter Program (GDP),
largely led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
recently deployed its 1,250th buoy into waters off Canada, fulfilling
its goal of blanketing the globe with data-collecting instruments.
“If you want to know what’s happening in your backyard, or you
want to know what’s happening on a global basis, these data
will help you,” says Peter Niiler, who helped toss the ceremonial
buoy into waters off Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 18.
A second program using a different type of instrument recently
marked an important milestone of its own. Researchers with the
Argo program
have deployed the 2,000th instrument of an eventual 3,000-strong
global array of instruments called floats.
“Argo data are being used by researchers and operational centers in
many countries,” says Scripps’ John Gould, Argo project
director.
Because of their unique ability to gather previously unobtainable
data, GDP and Argo are supplying important information to help
scientists and others better understand ocean processes, track
climate change
and forecast and monitor phenomena such as El Niño. 
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