The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array (TAO) Refresh–New Capabilities and Value Added

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) successfully completed the transition of the Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean Array (TAO) in 2007. TAO consists of 55 buoys that straddle the equatorial Pacific making real-time meteorological and oceanographic observations to monitor climate variability and to improve the detection, understanding, and prediction of the El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). TAO Refresh, an initiative to upgrade aging sensors and electronics inherited from the previous TAO systems (referred to as TAO Legacy) and to take advantage of advances in communications, was an integral part of the transition plan.

The sensor upgrades replaced custom-built sensing systems with proven commercial sensor technologies. These technologies have been-widely used and their specifications are well-documented in the literature. Their specifications meet or exceed the custom-built sensors of TAO Legacy.

Because of the advances in commercial satellite communications, TAO Refresh is not limited to the availability of the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites used TAO Legacy. TAO Refresh sends back the full set of six 10-minute observations collected every hour. TAO Refresh now provides a full 24 hours of observations while the previous system was often limited to 16 hours and a single daily average.

NDBC distributes an hourly observation on the Global Telecommuncation System (GTS) via the National Weather Service Telecommuncation Gateway, and makes the full-set available on the NOAA TAO website: http://tao.noaa.gov/. In providing, the full 24 hourly observations, users now have the flexibility to average the observations relevant to their applications. The full real-time observation sets on the website allow users finer temporal resolution in identifying transient features and can reinforce the hourly information. Because NDBC receives the observations first, it can perform quality control tests before releasing the observations to the GTS. By sending these complete observation sets in real-time, NDBC ensures the preservation of the observations should a buoy be lost and its recorded observations lost with it.

NDBC has been replacing the TAO Legacy moorings with TAO Refresh as opportunities arise. NDBC plans to complete the replacement of the remaining TAO Legacy moorings by the end of Fiscal Year 2014.