.. _why: Why argopy ? ============ Surprisingly, the Argo community never provided its user base with a Python software to easily access and manipulate Argo measurements: **argopy** aims to fill this gap. Despite, or because, its tremendous success in data management and in developing good practices and well calibrated procedures [ADMT]_, the Argo dataset is very complex: with thousands of different variables, tens of reference tables and a `user manual `_ more than 100 pages long: **argopy** aims to help you navigate this complex realm. For non-experts of the Argo dataset, it has become rather complicated to get access to Argo measurements. This is mainly due to: * Argo measurements coming from many different models of floats or sensors, * quality control of *in situ* measurements of autonomous platforms being really a matter of ocean and data experts, * the Argo data management workflow being distributed between more than 10 Data Assembly Centers all around the world. Less data wrangling, more scientific analysis --------------------------------------------- In order to ease Argo data analysis for the vast majority of **standard** users, we implemented in **argopy** different levels of verbosity and data processing to hide or simply remove variables only meaningful to **experts**. Let **argopy** manage data wrangling, and focus on your scientific analysis. If you don't know in which category you would place yourself, try to answer the following questions: * [ ] what is a WMO number ? * [ ] what is the difference between Delayed and Real Time data mode ? * [ ] what is an adjusted parameter ? * [ ] what a QC flag of 3 means ? If you don't answer to more than 1 question: you probably will feel more comfortable with the *standard* or *research* user modes. By default, all **argopy** data fetchers are set to work with a **standard** user mode, the other possible modes are **research** and **expert**. Each user modes and how to select it are further explained in the dedicated documentation section: :ref:`user-mode`. .. [ADMT] See all the ADMT documentation here: http://www.argodatamgt.org/Documentation