Argo Ocean Profiling Float 3D Model

An Argo profiling float, one of the thousands of robotic instruments that drift through the world's oceans, sinking and rising to measure temperature and salinity and reporting their data by satellite each time they surface. The model shows the tall pale-grey cylindrical hull with banded joints, a black collar disc beneath the domed top, the sensor head and a long, thin antenna.

Technical details: about 9,200 polygons and 6,600 vertices, with 8 colour materials and no image textures. The low count suits real-time scenes and web viewers. It is scaled to 2 metres for AiZity's catalogue scale.

The download includes GLB for web viewers and three.js, FBX for Unity, Unreal Engine and Maya, OBJ as a widely supported mesh, and BLEND for Blender. AiZity cleaned up the original (centred, grounded and renamed the parts) and converted it to these formats.

Good for oceanography and climate lessons, marine science explainers, underwater animations and environmental monitoring displays.

License: Public domain, made by NASA/Christopher R. Meaney (a U.S. government work). Free for personal and commercial use; please credit NASA. NASA logos and insignia are not included, and use must not suggest NASA endorsement.