Project Development - 2000
• November 2-11, 2000
Mr Rene Eppi, head of Foreign Affairs Office of NOAA, and Prof. Stephen Riser from Washington University, visited SIO, introduced the World Argo Progress and gave 4 lectures, and discussed the details for cooperation of the two sides on Argo project.
• August 2000
Prof. Xu Jianping, was accepted as the member of the International Argo Science Team (IAST, consisting of 16 members from 11 countries, of US, Germany, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, Korea, UK, India, New Zealand, and China).
• March 2002 to March 2001
Under the auspices of Nation's Ninth 5-year 863 Development Program-Research on Climatic Disaster Formation Mechanism and Predicting theory, the Institute of Ocean Technology (IOT) started to develop and primarily mastered the 2 key techniques of float self sinking-rising and depth controlling.
• May 15-26, 2000
A China Ocean Delegation headed by Prof. Chao Jiping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited US on the ocean technology, and saw about the advancing of US Argo development. After back home, the delegation sent a visiting report on the Construction and Development of the International Ocean Observing Array (Argo) to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), suggesting the policy-makers as early as possible to discuss and decide how China participates in the Argo Program.