TAO Project Mission: To provide real-time data from moored ocean buoys for improved detection, understanding, and prediction of El Niño and La Niña Customers: 1) Climate Forecasters 2) Research Community 3) Educators (primary through graduate school level) 4) General Public
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TAO Project Mission: To provide real-time data from moored ocean buoys for improved detection, understanding, and prediction of El Niño and La Niña Customers:
TAO/TRITON Array A Key Component of the ENSO Observing System Developed during TOGA ( ); became TAO/TRITON in Jan 2000 Complements other in situ & satellite observations High resolution time series of key Variables Sea surface temperature Surface winds Upper ocean heat content Ocean currents Other Real-time data delivery
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TAO Project
Mission: To provide real-time data from moored ocean buoys for improved detection, understanding, and prediction of El Niño and La Niña
Customers:
1) Climate Forecasters
2) Research Community
3) Educators (primary through graduate school level)
4) General Public
TAO (NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory)
TRITON (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center)
Plus French (IRD) conductivity cells and the occasional day of shiptime
TAO/TRITON ArrayA Key Component of the ENSO Observing System
• Developed during TOGA (1985-1994); became TAO/TRITON in Jan 2000
• Complements other in situ & satellite observations
• High resolution time series of key VariablesSea surface temperatureSurface windsUpper ocean heat contentOcean currentsOther
• Real-time data delivery
TAO/TRITON ArrayA Key Component of the ENSO Observing System
“…the crowning achievement of TOGA was the
development of the TAO array…”
EOS, Trans. AGU
TAO/TRITON Data
TAO/TRITON Data
Value for ENSO Prediction
“…the array of moored buoys established for TOGA… has been an invaluable source of data for monitoring and modeling the [1997-98] event…”
--G.O.P Obasi, Sect. General, WMO, 1998
“Scientists generally agree that ocean observatories’ shining accomplishment has been the prediction of El Niños…[enabled by] the network of buoys known as the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project…”
--Science News, Dec. 2002
Value for ENSO Prediction
“One of the most successful deep-sea programs has been the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array in the equatorial Pacific…[which] enabled improved detection, understanding and prediction of El Niño events…”
--Enabling Ocean Research in the 21st Century: Implementation of a Network of Ocean Observatories National Research Council, 2003
Value for ENSO Prediction
Success in predicting the 2002-03 El Niño was due to “…a combination of more experience watching El Niños develop, 2 decades of research, and the observation network that NOAA and NASA have invested in.”
--Vernon Kousky, NOAA Climate Prediction Center Science, 26 July 2002
Recent TAO-related Research (Mooring-based)
• Analysis of TAO & PIRATA Data (~50 pubs/yr)• PMEL/MBARI Moored CO2 and Bio-optical
Measurements• PACS/EPIC Field Work and Analyses• NASA/TRMM Rainfall Data Collection• University of Washington Acoustic Rainfall
Measurements• DOE/ARM Shortwave Radiation Measurements• University of Maryland Bioptical Measurements
* Includes TAO/PIRATA; includes 0.5 FTE for McPhaden; does not include PMEL base support for engineering development.
TAO Project FY 2003 Budgets*
• TAO (OAR) $2,575,000• PIRATA (OGP) $600,000• PMEL Base $400,000• TOTAL=$3,575,000
* Does not include NOAA Shiptime (~$5M/yr)
TAO Project FY 2003 Budgets(Grants & Contracts)
• Salaries: ~50%• Supplies and Equipment: ~40%• Shipping and Travel: ~5%• Computer: ~5%
Summary“The ENSO Observing System...including the TAO/TRITON mooring array...pioneered real-time public data delivery in order to serve…both research and operational objectives. [Its] successes...in better understanding ENSO variability and successful seasonal prediction...have paved the way for global observations to build on its capabilities.”
D. Roemmich and J. GouldIn “The Future of In Situ Climate Observations for the Global Ocean”CLIVAR Exchanges, March 2003
Summary
“Proponents of co-operation [for developing an internationally sponsored global earth observing system] point to the system of buoys and monitoring stations set up on the Pacific in recent years to keep track of El Niño…”
Editorial on the First Earth Observation SummitThe Economist24 July 2003