Site: WHOTS (WHOI Hawaii Ocean Timeseries Station)
Position: 22 º 45’ N, 158 º 00’ W
Categories: Air-Sea Flux reference site; meteorological, physical
Safety distance for ship operations: 5 n-mi
Short description:
Platforms: 1 surface mooring
Variables measured: Surface meteorology at 1 min; subsurface T, S at 10 min from 1-150 m depth; U,V at 10 min from 10-120 m.
Start date, service interval: Established August 2004. Serviced annually.
Scientific rationale:
The Hawaii Ocean Timeseries (HOT) site has been occupied since 1988 as a part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The HOT program includes comprehensive, interdisciplinary upper ocean observations, but does not include continuous surface forcing observations. Thus, the primary intent of the WHOTS mooring is to provide long-term, high-quality air-sea fluxes as a coordinated part of the HOTS program and contribute to the goals of observing heat, fresh water and chemical fluxes at a site representative of the oligotrophic North Pacific Ocean.
Groups / P.I.s /labs /countries involved / responsible:
Drs. Robert A. Weller and Albert J. Plueddemann, Upper Ocean Processes Group, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), USA
Dr. Roger Lukas, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawaii, USA
Status:
Operating; funded by the NOAA Office of Climate Observation and the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences.
Technology:
Surface mooring with meteorological sensors on buoy, discrete sensors along mooring line for T,S and discrete sensors plus ADCP for currents
Real-time telemetry of hourly meteorology and 1 m depth T,S via Argos
Data policy:
Real-time data: public, surface meteorology and 1 m T,S (hourly)
Delayed mode data: public, surface meteorology, fluxes, and subsurface data
All data withheld from GTS
Data management:
Satellite data collection system: Present, Argos; future, Iridium.
Real-time data management: Meteorological data processed and distributed in NetCDF and ASCII by WHOI/UOP. See http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/WHOTS/whots.htm
Delayed mode data management: Delayed mode subsurface data will be made available in standard formats through the HOT physical oceanography web site: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HOT_WOCE
Metadata scheme : Met data archived in NetCDF, presently working towards compliance with OceanSITES, Cooperative Ocean/Atmosphere Research Data Service (COARDS) and Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions for the standardization of NetCDF files, and with the emerging Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) framework data standard. Also participating in Marine Metadata Interoperability project (http://www.marinemetadata.org ).
Societal value / Users / customers:
This project directly addresses NOAAs Program Plan for Building a Sustained Ocean Observing System for Climate – Ocean Reference Stations, in synergy with other elements (Surface Drifting Buoy Network, Ships of Opportunity, Argo Profiling Floats, and satellites). The WHOTS mooring also serves as an extension of the HOT program to include detailed surface forcing information. The WHOTS program contributes to CLIVAR program by improving understanding of surface fluxes and SST variability in seasonal to interannual time scales.
Contact Person:
Robert Weller, WHOI (rweller@whoi.edu, 508-289-2508), Al Plueddemann, WHOI (aplueddemann@whoi.edu, 508-289-2789), Roger Lukas, U. Hawaii (rlukas@hawaii.edu )
Links / Web-sites:
Project information : http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/WHOTS/whots.htm and
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HOT_WOCE/intro.html
Data access : http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/WHOTS/whots.htm
Compiled by: Al Plueddemann (January 2009)
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Site: Stratus Ocean Reference Station
Position: 20ºS 85ºW
Categories:
Air-Sea Flux reference site. Meteorological, physical
Safety distance for ship operations: 10 nautical miles
Short description:
Platforms: One surface mooring
Variables measured:
Surface meteorology (wind speed and direction, air temperature, sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, relative humidity, incoming shortwave and longwave radiation, barometric pressure, and precipitation) measured every minute
Temperature, salinity, velocity at fixed depths to 450 m, internally recorded at 5 to 15 minute intervals
Start date: First deployed October 2000; serviced roughly every 12 months
Scientific rationale:
Obtain high quality surface meteorological and air-sea flux time series under the stratus cloud deck. Use these data, which are withheld from use in initializing global atmospheric models, to examine the performance of these models and to work with modeling centers, remote sensors, and those developing improved air-sea flux fields to develop improved surface meteorological and air-sea flux fields. The high quality surface mooring data identify bias and other errors in the model and satellite fields.
Use the surface forcing data together with the records of upper ocean variability to examine atmosphere-ocean coupling under the stratus deck, possible feedbacks between cool SSTs and the presence of stratus, and the processes that govern evolution of SST. These processes are both local and remote, as Rossby waves excited by coastal trapped waves which can be generated by equatorial waves associated with ENSO appear to play a role in offshore transport of cool water.
Groups / P.I.s /labs /countries involved / responsible:
The Stratus Ocean Reference Station is maintained by Dr. Robert Weller and the Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA with support from the NOAA Climate Observation Program. Collaborative work on the annual cruises is done by the Chilean Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA).
Status:
The site is operational.
Support is planned for the foreseeable future as one of the global array of Ocean Reference Stations.
Technology:
Surface mooring.
Telemetry of hourly averaged surface meteorology via Service Argos.
Internally recording SST by floating SBE 39, a few cm deep; telemetered SST data comes from 1 m depth.
Oceanographic instruments are internally recording point instruments and one Doppler profiling current meter.
NDBC surface wave package installed in buoy
Sabine/PMEL PCO2 system installed in buoy
Data policy:
Real-time data: public, surface meteorology
Delayed mode data: public, surface meteorology, fluxes, and subsurface data
All data withheld from GTS
Data management:
Satellite data collection system: Present, Argos
Data assembly center: NDBC/USA
Real-time data: hourly surface meteorology available in near real time in ascii and NetCDF via website (http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/Stratus/stratusdata.htm)
Delayed mode data: Internally recorded surface meteorology, computed air-sea fluxes, and internally recorded oceanographic variables available via website after post-deployment calibration and quality control procedures
Metadata scheme: data archived in NetCDF, working towards compliance with OceanSITES, Cooperative Ocean/Atmosphere Research Data Service (COARDS) and Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions for the standardization of NetCDF files, and with the emerging Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) framework data standard. Also participating in Marine Metadata Interoperability project (http://www.marinemetadata.org).
Societal value / Users / customers:
Serves as a benchmark or reference station for motivating/validating improvements to numerical weather prediction and climate models and remote sensing products and for anchoring new, more accurate regional and global fields of air-sea fluxes. Improves understanding of air-sea coupling and the processes that govern the evolution of SST in the stratus cloud deck region, which is of critical importance to climate. Occupies one of the classic problem areas for atmospheric models – the stratus deck region- and provides benchmark time series for improving/validating atmsopheric models, for ground-truthing remotes sensing products, and for anchoring air-sea flux fields.
Links / Web-sites:
Project information : http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/Stratus/
Data access : http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/Stratus/stratusdata.htm
Compiled/updated by: Robert A. Weller (February 2009)
F igure 1 (left):
Surface buoy deployed at the Stratus Ocean Reference Station. Two redundant meteorological systems are used
Figure 2 (bottom): Comparison of monthly values of the four components of heat flux (from top: sensible, latent, new longwave, and net shortwave) from the buoy (IMET), models (ECMWF, NCEP1, NCEP2), and climatologies (NCAR, SOC).
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