Moored Time Series Measurements in Support of Climate Studies
Michael J. McPhaden
NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Seattle, Washington, USA
A major accomplishment of the recently completed Tropical Atmosphere Global Ocean (TOGA) Program was the development of an ocean observing system in support of short-term climate studies associated with the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. One element of this observing system is the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) Array of moored buoys spanning the width of the tropical Pacific. The purpose of the TAO Array is to provide real-time data of critical environmental variables for improved description, understanding and prediction of fluctuations in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on seasonal-to-interannual time scales. Successful implementation of TAO has relied on a sustained multi-national effort involving the US, Japan, Taiwan, France and Korea.Data from this array are now used for a multiplicity of short-term climate research and forecasting activities at institutions around the world.
The advent of the World Climate Research Program's study of Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR), and the development of long term observational efforts such as the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), present the climate community with new scientific opportunities and new observational challenges. Maintenance, enhancement and expansion of long term observational efforts begun under TOGA provide one means of meeting the measurement needs of these new international programs.
This presentation will review some of the scientific, technical and organizational factors that led to the success of the TAO Array in TOGA, as they are relevant to the design of the proposed new JAMSTEC buoy array. The presentation will also highlight some practical issues that need to be addressed for a successful integration of the JAMSTEC buoy program with the existing TAO Array in support of CLIVAR, GOOS and OCOS objectives.
