National Data Buoy Center transition of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) program

Abstract

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) operates and maintains 55 Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoys in the equatorial Pacific Ocean from 9°N latitude to 8°S latitude and 95°W longitude to 165°E longitude. The TAO array was developed after the need was determined following the 1982–1983 El Niño event, which had evaded detection by the science community until well into its maturity. NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is an interdisciplinary organization whose focal point is collecting open ocean data for monitoring and predicting purposes. PMEL's TAO project was created with help from NOAA's Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate Studies (EPOCS) program to enhance the understanding and prediction of El Niño and La Niña events. PMEL completed the TAO array in December of 1994 and in 2005, PMEL began transitioning the TAO array (55 TAO buoys and four Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs)) to NDBC, first in data management and quality control (QC) and later in next-generation creation and implementation of buoys.