PMEL Programs and Plans
Accomplishments in FY 98 and Plans for FY 99
Figures (a) TAO array, consisting of approximately 70 deep
ocean moorings, provides high quality, in-situ, real-time data for
short-term climate studies relating to El Niño, and
(b) NOAA's newly commisioned research vessel Ka'imimoana is dedicated
to servicing the TAO buoys.
Tropical Atmosphere-Oceans Program
"Observing systems have been fundamental in alerting the world
to the onset of the latest El Niño. The array of moored buoys
across the Pacific Ocean...has been an invaluable source of
data for monitoring and modeling the event."
G. O. P. Obasi, Secretary General, WMO
World Climate News, June 1998
Accomplishments in FY 98
The Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean (TAO) Array consists of approximately
70 deep-ocean moorings spanning the equatorial Pacific Ocean between
8N and 8S from 95W to 137E. The purpose of the array is to provide high
quality, in-situ, real-time data in the equatorial Pacific Ocean for
short-term climate studies, most notably those relating to the El
Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. TAO measurements consist
primarily of surface winds, sea surface temperature, upper ocean
temperature and currents, air temperature, and relative humidity. Data
are telemetered in real time via Service Argos. A subset of these data
is placed on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS) for distribution
to operational centers where they are assimilated into weather and
climate forecast models. The NOAA Ship Ka'imimoana, commissioned in
1996, is dedicated to servicing TAO moorings between 95W and 165E.
Non-US shiptime (primarily from Japan) is required to service the
array to the west of 165E. The array is part of the operational
ENSO Observing System, supported by NOAA's Environmental Research
Laboratories.
Work at PMEL during the past year has focused on documenting the 1997-98
El Niño, the strongest on record. A major review article was prepared
for Science describing the evolution of this unusually strong event,
and the physical mechanisms responsible for it. Additional work at
PMEL in FY 98 focussed on analyzing upper ocean mass, heat and momentum
balances in the equatorial Pacific on intraseasonal, seasonal and
interannaul time scales.
In FY 98, a new mooring site in the North Pacific was occupied as part of the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP). This buoy, a high latitude version of the ATLAS mooring designed to withstand the wintertime storminess of the North Pacific, was deployed at the site of Ocean Weather Ship PAPA (50N, 145W). The work at this location is part of a multi-institutional effort involving the University of Washington, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA/NESDIS, and the Naval Research Lab to observe and model the North Pacific for improved weather, climate, and ocean analyses.
Implementation of the Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical
Atlantic (PIRATA) continued in collaboration with Brazil and France,
with the array expanding from two to five sites. The TAO project
also continued a short wave radiation measurement program in the
western Pacific in collaboration with the US Department of
Energy/Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (DOE/ARM) program, and an
in situ rainfall and surface salinity measurement program with
the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) program. Moored
bio-opitical, nutrient and chemical sensors were deployed at a few
sites within the array in collaboration with the NOAA Ocean Atmosphere
Carbon Exchange Studies (OACES) Program and the NASA SeaWifs (ocean
color) satellite program. In anticipation of deployments of the
new Japanese Triangle Trans Ocean Buoy Network (TRITON) in the
western Pacific in early 1998, PMEL transferred some of its data
processing and display software to JAMSTEC in order that the
ATLAS and TRITON buoy data streams can be seamlessly intregrated
into a single data set from the start. Also in FY 98, refinements
of the new Next Generation ATLAS moorings continued, and at several
sites in the array were instrumented with this newer technology.
Tropical Atmosphere-Oceans Program
Plans for FY 99
- Maintain the TAO Array as part of the ENSO Observing System in
support of NOAA's Seasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction Program
(SICPP), GOOS, GCOS, and CLIVAR/GOALS.
- Continue the transition to Next Generation ATLAS moorings in the
array.
- Continue moored radiation, rainfall, bio-optical, and chemical
measurements.
- Expand the PIRATA array to 12 sites in the tropical Atlantic.
- Expand the array in the eastern tropical Pacific in support of
NOAA's Pan American Climate Studies (PACS).
- Recover and redeploy the mooring at Station PAPA; occupy a second site with a high latitude ATLAS mooring in the subtropical gyre of the North Pacific.
- Evaluate ocean and atmosphere reanalyses products, and of the
impacts of TAO data on climate analysis and predictions.
- Maintain and enhance on-line access to TAO data sets.
|
