Profiling Float: Buoyancy-Driven Ocean Diving

Deep-ocean exploration doesn't always mean a crewed submersible — most of what oceanographers know about ocean temperature and salinity below the surface comes from unpowered profiling floats like the ~4,000-unit Argo array, each of which dives and resurfaces on nothing but a small buoyancy pump. This simulator models one honestly: a real seawater density profile with a thermocline and pressure compressibility, Archimedes' principle, quadratic drag and Newton's second law drive a float whose only actuator is an oil-bladder piston. Push the piston out and the float displaces less than its weight in seawater and sinks; push it in and it floats up. Run the autonomous mode to watch it execute the real Argo mission cycle — descend, park and drift, dive deeper, then surface to \"phone home\" — while live telemetry tracks depth, vertical speed, local seawater density and the net buoyancy force driving it.