Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Project
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Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Project
The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project is a major international effort that instrumented the entire tropical Pacific Ocean with approximately 70 deep ocean Mooring (oceanography), moorings. The development of the TAO array in 1985 was motivated by the 1982-1983 El Niño event and ultimately designed for the study of year-to-year climate variations related to Southern Oscillation, El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Led by the TAO Project Office of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), the full array of 70 moorings was completed in 1994. The completed TAO array provides in-situ data collection of high quality oceanographic and surface meteorological data for monitoring, forecasting, and understanding of climate swings associated with El Niño and La Nina. In January 2000, the TAO array was renamed the TAO/TRITON array in recognition of the contribution made by the TRITON (Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network) mooring ...
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Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Oceania in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of its total surface area, larger than Earth's entire land area combined .Pacific Ocean
. '' Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The centers of both the

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Oceanographic Instrumentation
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers utilize to glean further knowledge of the world ocean, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, climatology, geography, geology, hydrology, meteorology and physics. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past. An oceanographer is a person who studies many matters concerned with oceans, including marine geology, physics, chemistry and biology. History Early history Humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on ...
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Weather Forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere, land, and ocean and using meteorology to project how the atmosphere will change at a given place. Once calculated manually based mainly upon changes in atmospheric pressure, barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition or cloud cover, weather forecasting now relies on numerical weather prediction, computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases ...
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Prediction And Research Moored Array In The Atlantic
The Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA) is a system of moored observation buoys in the tropical Atlantic Ocean which collect meteorological and oceanographic data. The data collected by the PIRATA array helps scientists to better understand climatic events in the Tropical Atlantic and to improve weather forecasting and climate research worldwide. Climatic and oceanic events in the tropical Atlantic, such as the Tropical Atlantic SST Dipole affect rainfall and climate in both West Africa and Northeast Brazil. The northern tropical Atlantic is also a major formation area for hurricanes affecting the West Indies and the United States. Alongside the RAMA array in the Indian Ocean and the TAO/TRITON network in the Pacific Ocean, PIRATA forms part of the worldwide system of tropical ocean observing buoys. Partners The project is a tripartite cooperation between Brazil, France and the United States. The principal agencies involved are NOAA in the United States, ...
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Research Moored Array For African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis And Prediction
The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) is a system of moored observation buoys in the Indian Ocean that collects meteorological and oceanographic data. The data collected by RAMA will greatly enhance the ability of scientists to understand climatic events and predict monsoon events. Climatic and oceanic events in the Indian Ocean affect weather and climate throughout the rest of the world (such as El Niño, hurricanes, and United States weather), so RAMA will support weather forecasting and climate research worldwide. Although widely supported internationally, the system has only been partially implemented () due to pirate activity off the coast of Somalia. Aims and objectives Although the data coverage for the Indian Ocean has been poor, it has not been non-existent. Satellites have been taking measurements, but those measurements require validation in situ. Some nations, like India and Australia, operate national ocean observ ...
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Institut De Recherche Pour Le Développement
The Institut de Recherche pour le Développement or IRD () is a French science and technology establishment under the joint supervision of the French Ministries of Higher Education and Research and Foreign Affairs. It operates internationally from its headquarters in Marseille, and two metropolitan centres of Montpellier and Bondy. It was created as the Office de la recherche scientifique et technique outre-mer or ORSTOM, ‘Overseas Scientific and Technical Research Office’) in 1943. Missions The IRD institute has three main missions: research on world development, overseas consultancy and training. It conducts scientific programs contributing to the sustainable development of the countries of the South, with an emphasis on the relationship between man and the environment. Organisation The IRD's scientific activities are organised through five departments: *Earth and Environment *Living Resources *Societies and Health *Expertise and consulting *Support and training ...
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GOOS
The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is a global system for sustained observations of the ocean comprising the oceanographic component of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). GOOS is administrated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and joins the Global Climate Observing System, GCOS, and Global Terrestrial Observing System, GTOS, as fundamental building blocks of the GEOSS. GOOS is a platform for: * International cooperation for sustained observations of the oceans. * Generation of oceanographic products and services. * Interaction between research, operational, and user communities. GOOS serves oceanographic researchers, coastal managers, parties to international conventions, national meteorological and oceanographic agencies, hydrographic offices, marine and coastal industries, policy makers and the interested general public. GOOS is sponsored by the IOC, UNEP, WMO and ICSU. It is implemented by member states via their government age ...
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Global Climate Observing System
The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) was established in 1992 as an outcome of the Second World Climate Conference, to ensure that the observations and information needed to address climate-related issues are obtained and made available to all potential users. The GCOS is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Council for Science (ICSU). In order to assess and monitor the adequacy of in-situ observation networks as well as satellite-based observing systems, GCOS regularly reports on the adequacy of the current climate observing system to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and thereby identifies the needs of the current climate observing system. GCOS is a system that comprises the climate-relevant components of many contributing observing systems and networks. Its mission is to help ensure ...
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NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep sea exploration, and manages fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone. Purpose and function NOAA's specific roles include: * ''Supplying Environmental Information Products''. NOAA supplies to its customers and partners information pertaining to the state of the oceans and the atmosphere, such as weather warnings and forecasts via the National Weather Service. NOAA's information services extend as well to climate, ecosystems, and commerce. * ''Providing Environmental Stewardship Services''. NOAA is a steward of U.S. coastal and marine environments. In coordination with federal, state, local, tribal and international authorities, NOAA manages the ...
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Mooring (oceanography)
current_meter.html" ;"title="sediment traps and current meter">sediment traps and current meters --> A mooring in oceanography is a collection of devices connected to a wire and anchored on the sea floor. It is the ''Lagrangian and Eulerian specification of the flow field, Eulerian way'' of measuring ocean currents, since a mooring is stationary at a fixed location. In contrast to that, the ''Lagrangian way'' measures the motion of an oceanographic drifter, the Lagrangian drifter. Construction principle The mooring is held up in the water column with various forms of buoyancy such as glass balls and syntactic foam floats. The attached instrumentation is wide-ranging but often includes CTDs (conductivity, temperature depth sensors), current meters (e.g. acoustic Doppler current profilers or deprecated rotor current meters), and biological sensors to measure various parameters. Long-term moorings can be deployed for durations of two years or more, powered with alkaline or lith ...
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Argos System
Argos is a global satellite-based system that collects, processes, and disseminates environmental data from fixed and mobile platforms around the world. The worldwide tracking and environmental monitoring system results from Franco-American cooperation. Besides satellite data collection, the Argos system's main feature is the ability to geographically locate the data source from any location on Earth using the Doppler effect. History and utilization Argos was established in 1978 and has provided data to environmental research and protection groups that was previously unobtainable. Many remote automatic weather stations report via Argos. Argos is a component of many global research programs including: Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere program (TOGA), Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP), World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), Argo. There are 22,000 active transmitters (8,000 of which are used in animal tracking) in over 100 countries. Since the late 1980s, Argos transmi ...
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