The Argos DCS is a data collection relay system that adds the benefits of providing global coverage and platform location. The Argos program is administered under a joint agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the French Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

The system consists of in-situ data collection platforms equipped with sensors and transmitters and the Argos instrument aboard NOAA and EUMETSAT polar-orbiting satellites. The global environmental data sets are collected at telemetry ground stations in Fairbanks, Alaska; Wallops Island, Virginia; and Svalbard, Norway; and pre-processed by the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) in Suitland, Maryland. Two CNES subsidiary companies, Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) in Toulouse, France and CLS America in Largo, Maryland process the data and deliver it to the end user.

Flying the Argos system aboard polar-orbiting satellites provides worldwide coverage. Additionally, incorporating the Argos instrument on a moving satellite allows for locating an in-situ platform using Doppler shift calculations. This positioning capability permits applications such as monitoring drifting ocean buoys and studying wildlife migration paths.