Monday, 13 January 2025: 2:00 PM
222 (New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array provides observations that are critical for understanding and predicting El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability in the tropical Pacific. In 2022, the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) began a multi-year TAO Recapitalization (Recap) effort to modernize the TAO array and enhance its observational capabilities. These enhancements were described in the Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS) 2020 Final Report, and are funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The first enhancement to the TAO array under the TAO Recap project is the upgrade of the data collection payload, using NDBC’s Smart Module Plus (SM+) processing technology. The SM+ features reduced power consumption, increased transmission frequency, and backchannel capability. In addition, the TAO Recap project is addressing rising costs and obsolescence issues by utilizing new sensors for barometric pressure, radiation, and ocean currents. However, the most notable enhancement is the increase in observing capability in the TAO array. The number of stations measuring barometric pressure, radiation, and rainfall will increase from four to forty-eight, and the number of stations measuring ocean currents will increase from four to twenty-one. The new mooring design will facilitate measuring water temperature at seventeen subsurface depths, an increase from ten depths on most of the existing TAO moorings.
Concurrent with the enhancements to the buoys themselves, NDBC is also improving its shoreside processing and quality control methods to support the larger quantity of data that must be reviewed on a daily basis. Among the shoreside enhancements is the real-time processing and dissemination of acoustic Doppler current profiler data, which until now have only been made available after the recovery of the instrument. These enhancements to the TAO array will greatly increase the spatial resolution and quality of data, advancing our scientific understanding of the fluxes and processes that drive ENSO variability.
Field testing of the new SM+ payload was completed in 2022-23, and field testing of the new sensors was completed in 2023-24. Mass procurements of new sensors took place in 2024 following the successful completion of field testing. Also in 2024, TAO Recap systems were deployed at five existing TAO sites. NDBC plans to convert the entire array to the new system over the course of the next three years.
The first enhancement to the TAO array under the TAO Recap project is the upgrade of the data collection payload, using NDBC’s Smart Module Plus (SM+) processing technology. The SM+ features reduced power consumption, increased transmission frequency, and backchannel capability. In addition, the TAO Recap project is addressing rising costs and obsolescence issues by utilizing new sensors for barometric pressure, radiation, and ocean currents. However, the most notable enhancement is the increase in observing capability in the TAO array. The number of stations measuring barometric pressure, radiation, and rainfall will increase from four to forty-eight, and the number of stations measuring ocean currents will increase from four to twenty-one. The new mooring design will facilitate measuring water temperature at seventeen subsurface depths, an increase from ten depths on most of the existing TAO moorings.
Concurrent with the enhancements to the buoys themselves, NDBC is also improving its shoreside processing and quality control methods to support the larger quantity of data that must be reviewed on a daily basis. Among the shoreside enhancements is the real-time processing and dissemination of acoustic Doppler current profiler data, which until now have only been made available after the recovery of the instrument. These enhancements to the TAO array will greatly increase the spatial resolution and quality of data, advancing our scientific understanding of the fluxes and processes that drive ENSO variability.
Field testing of the new SM+ payload was completed in 2022-23, and field testing of the new sensors was completed in 2023-24. Mass procurements of new sensors took place in 2024 following the successful completion of field testing. Also in 2024, TAO Recap systems were deployed at five existing TAO sites. NDBC plans to convert the entire array to the new system over the course of the next three years.
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