Deployments of TAO moorings in the western Pacific started in 1985 along the 165 E meridian. By the beginning of the COARE IOP in November, 1992, 15 standard TAO sites were occupied in the western Pacific between 8N and 8S along 165E, 156E, 147E, and 137E. In collaboration with the University of Hawaii, the University of South Florida, and National Taiwan University, the TAO array was enhanced for COARE with five additional ATLAS moorings (0, 170E; 0, 160.5E; 0, 157.5E; 0, 154E; 0, 143E) and one additional PROTEUS mooring (0 156E). Twelve TAO moorings were equipped with SeaBird Seacats to monitor near-surface salinity variations, six sites had optical rain gauges (0 154E; 0, 156E; 2N 156E; 2S 156E; 0, 157.5E; 0 165E), and 2 sites had short wave radiation (0, 156E and 0, 165E).

TAO COARE Data Quality Control

The available TAO COARE data sets have undergone quality control checks by PMEL. In addition, the surface meteorological data for the TAO buoys that were deployed during the COARE IOP have also been quality controlled by the Surface Meteorology Data Center in the Center for Ocean Atmosphere Prediction Studies at Florida State University. FSU is responsible for quality controlling all surface meteorological data recorded during the COARE IOP.

Access to TAO Data

Standard TAO data (surface winds, air temperature, relative humidity, discrete ocean temperatures from 1 meter to 500 meters, and current meter data) are available via the TAO realtime data delivery page and via anonymous FTP. Non-standard TAO measurements made for COARE (salinity, rain gauge, shortwave radiation) are available along with all other COARE mooring data via the PMEL maintained COARE mooring archive. A plot of TAO data availability during COARE shows the spatial and temporal distribution of all variables.

TAO Project Office
NOAA | Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
atlasrt@noaa.gov
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