MELBOURNE, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Australia is expanding its role in global ocean monitoring with the deployment of 12 new robotic biogeochemical (BGC) Argo floats, the University of Tasmania (UTAS) said Friday.

The project strengthens Australia's contribution to the global Argo network of around 4,000 robotic floats, which has been measuring the temperature and salinity of the top two kilometers of the ocean since 2000, said a UTAS media release.

The 12 additional new generation of Argo floats are fitted with BGC sensors, thanks to a 1.49-million-Australian-dollar (about 980,000 U.S. dollars) grant from the Australian Research Council, it said.

"This will enhance our insights into biogeochemical cycles, marine ecosystems and our climate," said Professor Peter Strutton, oceanographer and project leader from UTAS' Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, in collaboration with leading Australian research organizations.

The new BGC-Argo floats will autonomously measure ocean physics, biology and chemistry for less than 5 percent of the cost of traditional ship-based measurements, Strutton said.

Argo floats drift with the ocean currents at a "parking depth" of 1,000 meters for nine days, then sink to 2,000 meters and rise to the surface, taking temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, carbon, nutrients, pH, and light along the way, the release said.

At the surface, the floats transmit the data via satellite to land-based Argo data centers, then the cycle begins again, it said, adding that the 12 additional Argo floats will measure 3,600 ocean BGC profiles over seven years, supporting research on climate change, marine ecosystems, ocean deoxygenation, acidification, carbon cycling, and fisheries.

The expanded Argo array will help answer critical questions about how the Southern Ocean absorbs human-made heat and carbon, while building expertise in marine observation and data analysis, researchers said. ■