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/TRITON TAO (NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory) TRITON (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center)

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

NxGen ATLAS TAO/TRITON Moorings  Measure many oceanic and surface meteorological parameters  High temporal resolution (1 min- 1 hour)  Real-time data relay to shore via Service Argos

TAO/TRITON Data Real-time data return: 91% July ‘04-June ‘05

Value for ENSO Prediction “…the array of moored buoys established for TOGA… has been an invaluable source of data for monitoring and modeling the [ ] 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

Recent TAO-related Research (Mooring-based) Analysis of TAO & PIRATA Data (~50 pubs/yr) PMEL/MBARI Moored CO 2 and Bio-optical Measurements PACS/EPIC Field Work and Analyses (NOAA & US Universities) NASA/TRMM Rainfall Data Collection University of Washington Acoustic Rainfall Measurements DOE/ARM Shortwave Radiation Measurements University of Maryland Bioptical Measurements (PIRATA) University of Oregon turbulence measurements

Recent TAO-related Research (KA and RB Shipboard) Underway ADCP Measurements (U. Hawaii) CTD Surveys (PMEL) Underway Surface Carbon Measurements (PMEL) Atmospheric Chemistry (Scripps, Princeton) Atmospheric Radiation (NASA) Atmospheric Circulation (U. Washington) Air-sea Turbulent Fluxes (NOAA/ETL) Nutrient Sampling (MBARI) Iron Limitation Studies (NASA/Goddard) Pacific Barnacle Program (Bloomsberg U.) Float and Drifter Deployments (Scripps, AOML) Big-eye Tuna Project (NOAA/NMFS) Surface skin temperature measurements (UW/APL) Argon measurements (U. Washington & U. Chicago) Nitrogen-15 studies (Scripps)

Pilot Moored Research Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) A partnership between the US, France, and Brazil initiated in 1995

ORV Sagar Kanya Cruise 9 October-17 November 2004  38 Day Cruise  4 ATLAS & 1 ADCP mooring PMEL in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, India.

Draft Strategy for Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Array

Data and Information Dissemination TAO data are made available to the worldwide community of forecasters and researchers via the WWW and GTS in real-time and delayed mode Oct ‘04-Sept ‘05: 111,976 files delivered in 12,688 separate requests via WWW Oct ‘04-Sept ‘05: 24,071,140 Web hits

FY 2005 Shiptime  Pacific: 255 days NOAA Ships Ka’imimoana, Ron Brown  Atlantic: 71 days Suroit (Fr), Antares & Amorim do Valle (Br)  Indian: 38 days Sagar Kanya (Indian)

FY 2005 Person-days at Sea Pacific: 620 Atlantic: 38 Indian: 76 TOTAL: 714 Person-day= No. ship days at sea x No. TAO staff on board

Moorings Deployed FY 2005 (ATLAS/ADCP)  Pacific: 68 (64/4)  Atlantic: 13  Indian: 5 (4/1)  Total: 86 (81/5)

FY 2005 TAO Project Staff ~20 FTEs* Management: 2 Electronics Techs: 5.5 Mooring Techs: 4.5 Data Processing: 6 Oceanographers: 2 * Includes TAO/PIRATA& Indian Ocean; includes 0.5 FTE for McPhaden; does not include PMEL base support for engineering development.

FY 2005 TAO Project Staff ~20 FTEs* GS: 9 JISAO (UW): 8 NOAA Corps: 1 GSA Contract: 2 * Includes TAO/PIRATA & Indian Ocean; includes 0.5 FTE for McPhaden; does not include PMEL base support for engineering development.

FY 2005 NOAA Support of TAO Project Office*  TAO (OAR/NWS) $2,575,000  PIRATA (OAR/OCO) $640,000  Indian Ocean (OAR/OCO) $750,000  PMEL Base $400,000  TOTAL=$ 4,365,000 * Does not include NOAA Shiptime (~$5M/yr)

TAO Project FY 2005 Budgets (Grants & Contracts) Salaries: ~55% Supplies and Equipment: ~35% Shipping and Travel: ~6% Computer: ~4%

President Bush’s FY06 Budget for NOAA Climate Observations and Services “$3.2 million to expand the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array and the Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. This expansion will enhance NOAA's capability to accurately document the state of ocean climactic conditions and improve seasonal forecasting capability.” ( Other activities covered by this funding:  Support the technological development of the next generation of moored buoys.  Add salinity sensors to the TAO array to improve seasonal-interannual forecasting.  Upgrades for 4 TAO and 3 PIRATA moorings to ocean reference station quality for satellite and model research  Providing 4 additional buoys for the PIRATA array in the hurricane-genesis region of the Atlantic Ocean for improved understanding of ocean-atmosphere interactions on hurricane development.

Summary TAO is:  Central to NOAA’s climate mission  High profile nationally and internationally  Complicated technologically and logistically  Highly efficient in its management and operation  Integrated with research programs at PMEL

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 Summit The Economist 24 July 2003

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 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

Draft Strategy for Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Array JAMSTEC ADCP

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. Gould In “The Future of In Situ Climate Observations for the Global Ocean” CLIVAR Exchanges, March 2003